


Some Sort of Sacrifice (Stucky's daughter)

by Doctorpondin221b



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-07 08:35:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 40,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6796897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doctorpondin221b/pseuds/Doctorpondin221b
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sarah Grace Rogers-Barnes, adoptive daughter of Steven Grant Rogers and James Buchanan Barnes is very smart. Her life gets turned upside down at a young age and she learns to roll with the punches. Her powers and brother help with that too. Sarah has learned to do what she can with the shit life has thrown at her but will she be able to survive past 20 with the entire world counting on her?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The First Avenger

**Author's Note:**

> This is also posted on my Wattpad so if you see it there, it was me. Thank you all so much for reading, feedback is greatly appreciated!

It was the year 1937.

Steve had been thrown into the dumpster after picking a fight with a man that was harassing a young girl. He lied there for a moment looking out before he heard fists hitting stomachs.

Sure enough Bucky appeared above him.

"Hey there Stevie, stuck?" He taunted.

"Asshole." The twenty year old mumbled. "Help me out please."

Bucky laughed and held out his hand. Steve took it and climbed out.

"Thank you." Steve said.

"You're welcome. When are you gonna learn to stop picking fights?" Bucky asked but Steve was no longer listening. He was listening intently to something else.

"Steve?"

"Buck, shut up for a second." He said. Then Bucky heard it. The faint sound of crying.

"What the hell is that?" Steve asked. Bucky ran towards the dumpster and searched it. Then he saw her. He jumped in and pulled her up.

In Buckys hand was a baby girl, no older than 5 months old.

"STEVE!" He yelled. Steve ran over and Bucky handed him the baby. He jumped out and pulled off his coat. He wrapped up the baby, who was clearly to cold to survive the night.

"We have to take her to the apartment. She's freezing. We'll have to turn the small heater on and warm her up."

"We can't do that. We could be charged with kidnapping if anyone finds out!"

"Steve, she was thrown in to a dumpster. No one will be looking!" Bucky argued.

"Bucky-"

"Steve, please. If we don't get her home she will freeze to death. Please." Bucky begged. Steve looked into Bucky's pleading eyes.

"Okay. Fine. You're right." Steve said.

That was Bucky's cue to run. He knew Steve could make it home, it wasn't far. Only a block. He probably wouldn't even run. Bucky made it to their apartment building, stopped to take a short breath, and then he walked cautiously up the snow covered fire escape steps. Then he climbed into the window, the one they leave unlocked because it's quicker to get in that way than to hassle with their shitty self locking front door.

He turned on the heater. By now, the baby had began to cry again. He set her down flat on her back and he changed quickly out of his wet cold clothes. He began to hear Steve coming up the fire escape steps. Bucky took the jacket he had wrapped the baby in and he removed it.

"What can I do?" Steve asked, climbing through the window.

"Pick one, stay here or go downstairs to the corner store?"

"I'll stay and warm her up."

"Okay." Bucky had already begun to walk down the stairs when he called that out. He ran into the store and he purchased a can of baby formula, a baby bottle, baby soap, wipes and diapers. He payed with his last few dollars, then he ran back upstairs.

"Can you put some warm water in the kitchen sink?" Bucky asked, taking the baby out of Steve's hands. So Steve did that while Bucky made a bottle and fed the baby.

"Sink filled. I checked the temperature and it's not to hot and not too cold." Steve said. Bucky finished feeding her. He burped her and then put her carefully in the bath. He washed her with the soap.

When he removed her he looked into her eyes. He had wrapped her in one of their small dish towels to dry her off. For the first time since she had been home with them she smiled. Bucky smiled back to her and rocked her back and forth.

She reached out with one arm and Bucky met her hand. She wrapped her little hand around his finger. They stood there like that, Steve admiring in the background for a few moments.

After that he put a new diaper on her and wrapped in her one of the few blankets in the house.

"We should hand wash this and leave it out to dry so she had something to wear tomorrow. Then we can go talk to Allison down the hall and see if she has any of Olive's old clothes." Bucky suggested, holding the onesie she had previously been wearing in the air, seeing just how dirty it really was.

"Won't she ask what we need them for?"

"We can tell her that your sister who made us the godfathers of a baby died in a house fire but the baby was at the babysitters so we're given custody. Now we can't afford any clothes or blankets or stuff"

"Yeah. That could work but I don't have a sister."

"I know it will work because I'm a genius and of course you don't have a sister because she just died in a house fire." Bucky responded. Steve laughed and then went to wash the onesie. Then he laid it on the clothes rack near the heater.

Then they went to bed.

The baby only woke up once throughout the night to be fed, other than that, she slept on Bucky and Steve's shared mattress on the floor quite comfortably.

The next morning they arose around seven, an hour before Allison left for work. They got dressed and quickly ran to her apartment down the hall.

"Wait, before we knock, what's the baby's name?" Steve asked. Bucky thought for a quick moment.

"Sarah, after your mom." That's when Steve got teary eyed. Bucky knocked in the door. Allison opened it.

"Hello Allison" Steve said. She saw that baby in Bucky's arms and a look of confusion appeared on her face. Bucky then took over and explained the fake situation.

"Hey Allison, Steve's sister-"

"Whatever story you're about to make up, I'm gonna go ahead and let you know that I know you're lying" Allison said

"What?"

"Steve doesn't have a sister." She said. Steve and Bucky looked at each other and then Steve just started talking without even telling Bucky what he was going to say.

"Okay. You got us. We found her in a dumpster last night. She was blue and she seemed to have been wearing the same onesie and diaper for probably 2 days now. We brought her inside because someone dumped that baby in the dumpster to die and we were not going to let that happen however we can not afford a crib or a carrier or clothes. I know this sounds insane but we know Olive just grew out of that sort of stuff so we're hoping you can help us." Steve ranted.

There was pause and Allison just stared at them for a moment before talking.

"Of course I will. I know you're telling the truth. And I won't tell anyone by the way. You two really seem to want to help and I think you will be great parents." So Olives crib was put in they're apartment filled with old onesies that she had grown out of and Sarah was put in a baby carrier.

"Thank you so much." Steve said.

"Of course." She responded "I would recommend you let her sleep with you for a few more days so that she gets used you two. It will make everything easier in the long run."

"Will do. Thank you again Allison"

"You're welcome. I have to go drop Olive off at the babysitters before work. See you later. Come get me if you have any problems." And then Allison was gone.

Bucky got ready for work.

"So, you'll stay home with her while I work. I'm gonna go out after I finish up at the diner and see if I can get another job, seeing as we are now feeding another mouth."

"I could go get a job." Steve suggested.

"Absolutely not. Don't be outrageous."

"You having three jobs is outrageous! That's too much work. I could get a simple dish washing job. You need a break. Besides, I don't want to be the house wife. You need to take care of yourself. Seriously Buck, I want to do this, so let me." Steve begged. Bucky looked at him sympathetically.

"You really want to?"

"Yes"

"Alright." Bucky said.

"Seriously?"

"Of course."

"Yes!" Steve leaped and hugged Bucky.

"Alright. I have to go to work. I'll see you around three then you can go job hunting."

And that's what they did. Funny enough, it worked out perfectly. Steve got a dish washing job like he said he would at the diner. There shifts would end and start at the same time. Steve brought Sarah with him so he was on time and Bucky would take her straight home. This is the routine they had for years.

Until 1942 that is.

At 5 years old Sarah was a normal toddler. She ran and laughed and played and she loved her dad's. The routine had been the same for years. She would stay home with her dad until snack time, then she would get a bananas or toast and they would walk to her dad's work place. Then, her daddy would take her home with him and they would play until dad came home.

She understood that she didn't get as many things as the other kids but she was okay with that. As creative as her dads were, Sarah always had them beat. She couldn't get toys so she made them.

Sometimes she would get some clothes and toys for her aunt Allison, always Olives old stuff, except for Christmas and her birthday.

Steve and Bucky had never really had extravagant birthdays or christmases in there childhoods so of course they tried to spoil Sarah in all the ways they could. Of course they always got her used toys but they always made her a cake and they always did the most that they could to give her good holidays.

Her birthday had been decided by Steve. He picked July 4th because it fit, generally, and because as much as he loved independence, he wanted Sarah to share a birthday with America and himself. Also it was easy for them to remember.

Every July 4th they would wake up and have pancakes. Then Sarah would open her gifts from her dads. Then she would open her gift from Allison. After that the three of them would spend the day together at the park. It was always nice on the 4th. They would eat dinner and then they would have cake, red white and blue of course. The last part would be to watch the fireworks together though Sarah always fell asleep before they were over.

That was tradition. They had many traditions. They spent every Wednesday together as a family because neither Steve nor Bucky had work. They spent every holiday evening together no matter what it was. Even groundhogs day and other insignificant holidays were spent at the table.

But when America entered WWII things started to change. They began to conserve things and then Bucky decided that he was gonna quit working his other job. Instead he was going to go work at at car factory. He had tried to work there before but the hadn't been hiring however with all the men joining the army there were plenty of part time positions.

"I want to join the army." Steve said one night at the dinner table. America had only been in the war a month and already they were drafting soldiers.

"Are you insane?" Bucky asked

"No. I want to join!" Steve answered.

"You can't."

"Why the hell not?!" Steve raised his voice this time.

"Because who will take care of Sarah if we're both gone?" Bucky asked him.

"What do you mean both?" Steve asked. Bucky placed an envelope on the table, slamming his hand down with it. Steve looked at it for a moment then picked it up angrily. It was addressed to James Buchanan Barnes sent by the presidents desk. Steve opened it and he began to read.

"I got drafted." Bucky said sadly "I start my training in three days, then they assign me and I ship out."

"Oh god." Steve said. He had always dreamed of being a hero in the army but this put him on edge. Bucky had never wanted to be a soldier, he spent almost his whole life avoiding the fight only being in it to help someone he loved.

It was quiet for a few seconds and then Bucky broke down. He fell onto the couch and he began to sob. Steve tried comforting him.

"I don't want to go to war Steve. I can't go to war." Bucky sobbed

"I know Buck." Steve said. That's when Sarah struggled to get herself out of her high chair.

"Dada I want up" Sarah whined

"One minute Sarah" Steve said.

"No! Dada, I need to get up!" She said. Steve sighed and stood up. He pulled her out of her chair and set her on the floor. He began cleaning the mess she made. She pulled on his shirt.

"What Sarah?" Steve asked.

"I wanna tell you a secret." She told him. So he leaned down and she whispered in his ear.

"You sure?" He asked

"Mhmm" she responded.

"Okay. Go get it." So she ran as fast as her little legs could carry her. When she returned she had her favorite stuffed elephant. She stopped in front of Bucky.

"Daddy." She said quietly. He looked up and whipped his eyes.

"Yes baby." He said.

"Here." She held out her arms and handed him the elephant.

"I don't want to play right now." He said, trying to give her the toy back

"No, I want you to take Blinky." She said pushing it back towards him. She worked her way onto the couch and then she sat on his lap and curled into it. Bucky held onto the elephant in his hand and he hugged Sarah. Steve stood, leaning on the doorway watching them.

Bucky was gone for a while. When he came back Sarah was very excited but he was only back for a few days. He got his orders.

Steve and Bucky came home and sat in solemn silence for about 20 minutes before Allison dropped Sarah back off at the house.

"Daddy!" She screamed as she ran in. Every day since he had been home had been a good day in her eyes. She was so happy he was back. She jumped into his lap and laughed. He smiled sadly at her and hugged her.

"What's wrong daddy?" She asked

"Nothing baby." Bucky told her. She climbed into his lap and looked at him.

"Dada says lying is not allowed." She told him. She placed both of her little hands in his hands. 

"How did you get so smart?" He asked.

"With you two as my dad's" she responded. And she was right. Through the five years of life she had been alive, her fathers had done everything they could to make sure she was well mannered and very intelligent.

"Right." Bucky smiled.

"What's wrong daddy?" She asked again.

"I have to leave tomorrow. For a long time." He told her. She stopped and looked to be thinking for a minute.

"Well don't be sad." She said, climbing back into his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he held her. Steve was on the verge of tears.

"Okay, so we spend our last night together?" Steve suggested

"Yeah. Let's go see a flying car." Bucky responded.

"Yay!" Sarah yelled. She leaped off of Buckys lap and put her favorite ballet flats on. She wanted to be a ballerina, therefore she loved the idea of having 'ballet' anything. Then she grabbed her second favorite stuffed animal, a giraffe name spot, and she was ready.

"Don't you need a coat?" Steve asked her.

"Is it chilly?" She asked.

"Very chilly"

"Then yes please." So Steve put her coat on her. She smiled brightly.

The entire way there she was chanting flying car, sitting on Bucky's shoulders. She was carrying Spot in one hand and her ice cream cone in another.

Sarah had always thought Howard Stark was awesome. She was told about Howard by a very, very interested Bucky about 8 months previous and after hearing all the cool things he did she thought he was a very cool person and she wanted to meet him very badly.

Seeing him make a car fly was mesmerizing to her. She was speechless, almost for the first time since she started talking. Of course it crashed but she still thought it was awesome. After it was over Sarah couldn't stop blabbing about how cool science is and how she wanted a flying car.

"I want one"

"Well you can't have one" Steve said.

"Why not?" Sarah asked. Bucky laughed.

"Because they cost to much and they don't even work yet." Steve responded.

"Can I have one when they do work?"

"No you-"

"Maybe" Bucky interrupted. Steve gave Bucky a glare and Bucky flashed a smile at him. The were walking to a restaurant to get French fries and milkshakes when Steve saw something.

"Hey, I'm gonna catch up with you both. Go ahead. I don't know how long I'll be but it shouldn't be that long." Steve said. Bucky nodded his head in understanding. Steve went off.

When he came to the restaurant he had a shocked look on his face.

"You got in didn't you?"

"Yes. I did." Steve said. He sat down and took a fry.

"What are we gonna do with Sarah?"

"I talked to someone. I'm gonna take her to the base until we find a person to take care of her."

"And is this what you really want?"

"Yes."

So they did what they planned. Bucky was shipped over Seas and Steve took Sarah with him to the camp where she hung out with Peggy, a smart and brilliant you woman who was very sweet. Sarah really liked her but the person Sarah loved meeting the most was Howard.

It was the day of Steve's 'operation' and they had traveled by car, which Sarah got very excited about. She spent the entire time in her very first car ride looking it the windows, beaming with a smile.

When they reached and old antique shop, Peggy lifted her out of the car and took her in with them. They walked into a steel corridor and then trough a door. Sarah had been too mesmerized by everything to notice Howard at first but when she did she became very excited.

"Is that Mr. Stark?" Sarah asked Peggy.

"Yes."

"Can I meet him?" She asked politely. Peggy gave a small laugh and then put Sarah down. Taking Sarah's hand, Peggy lead her to Stark.

"Howard, I have someone here who would like to meet you." Peggy told him. Sarah was hiding behind Peggy.

"Come on out love, I don't bite." Howard told her. She inched out. Peggy smiled.

"Go ahead, tell him who you are." Peggy said. Sarah took a deep breath then straightened up almost to military stance.

"I'm Sarah Rogers-Barnes" She told him.

"I'm Howard Stark."

"I know." She told him. He smiled.

"You wanna see the machine?" He asked her. Immediately her smiled brightened.

"May I?" She asked.

"Of course. Come here." She waddled towards him and he picked her up. He showed her stuff and he even let her press a button. When it was time for the procedure Peggy led Sarah back to the room up the stairs. When it started, Sarah was in Peggy's arm clinging to Spot very tight.

When it started to go bad Sarah got upset.

"Stop it! Your hurting my daddy! Stop it!" She screamed.

"Turn it off!" Peggy barked.

"No! I can do this." Steve responded so they kept going. Sarah was crying in Peggys shoulder but when the light turned off Sarah let go. She looked toward the capsule.

"Is my daddy okay?" She asked Peggy.

"I don't know love." Peggy said honestly but when the capsule opened, Steve was different but alive. They helped pull him out but he seemed to have his strength immediately. Sarah wiggle out of Peggys arms and ran to him.

"Daddy!" She yelled. He picked her up.

"Sarah." He smiled.

"You look bigger." She told him.

"Well he is." Someone else said. Sarah recognized this as the doctor who had been with her dad. She smiled at him. Steve set her down and Peggy walked up to him.

"Sarah, come here." Howard said, as a distraction. She walked towards him. He was showing her a lever when a gun shot went off. Howard stood in front of her. Steve ran off and Sarah tried to follow him but Howard stopped her.

"He will be back. Don't you think he'll want you here when he returns." Howard reasoned.

"You're right." Sarah agreed. When Peggy returned, she returned without Steve. Sarah didn't like that.

"Where's my daddy?" She asked. Peggy got down to eye level.

"He's fighting a bad guy. I'm sure he'll be back soon" Peggy assured. Sarah smiled and hugged Peggy.

"Okay."

Most were still covering the doctor or trying to figure out how the man who shot him got in to the building but Sarah didn't care about that. She squeezed under two men covering the body.

She sat down next to him and she grabbed his hand. His eyes were opened which made her a little uncomfortable so she used her hands to cover them. The body was sad but it didn't gross her out. She knew that people died everyday, her dads told her that.

"Where's Sarah?" Steve asked when he got back

"I don't know, she was just here" Peggy responded. Sarah was still quietly sitting next to the doctor.

"Here she is!" A guard called out. She attempted the pull her away from the doctor.

"No! Put me down!" The man immediately let go. She sat back down her spot and grabbed his hand again

"Sarah?" Steve asked, walking over to her.

"Mhmm?" She asked.

"What are you doing?" He asked

"I'm staying with him and keeping him company." She responded. Steve sat down and pulled Sarah into his lap. She continued to hold his hand.

"Sarah, you know what he is right? You know he's not just sleeping." Steve asked

"No. He's dead." She said. Most people would be appalled that a five year old would know this but both Steve and Bucky had been adamant that there daughter would know about death. They had both lost there parents and they decided that they weren't going to have her live in the dark for 10 years. They never knew what was going to happen and if they were to die they wouldn't want her confused as to what happened to her dads. They wanted her to know.

"Yes he is." Steve responded.

"I just want him to know that he's not alone." Sarah said. Steve smiled at his daughter. Not only was she smart but she was kind and she cared about the people around her. She was the child that Bucky and Steve had raised her to be.

"He knows that love, he knows."

It was kind of beautiful, in a twisted way. It gave Steve peace that if he were to die or Bucky were to die Sarah would understand and she would be able to handle it. He was looking down at his daughter, holding his friends hand, and he was so proud of the little girl he and Bucky had raised.

When the men showed up to take him, Steve and Sarah moved with no arguments. They had done their piece and now it was time for the doctor to rest.

When Steve was told he wouldn't be going into the army, he was slightly outraged to say the least but because he did the shows, he got to take Sarah with him and therefore it was a better trade. Howard traveled to the overseas shows with them, so him and Sarah could stay in safe houses when Steve was in a wartime.

Sarah wasn't allowed in the war area but when Steve found Bucky, Steve brought Sarah to her other dad. She was so excited to see her dad again. Bucky walked up behind her and she sat facing away from him.

"Sarah?" Bucky said quietly. Sarah turned around from where she had been siting one the floor and playing.

"Daddy!" She screamed. She stood up and ran to him. Bucky noticed how tall she had gotten in a mere six months.

"Oh my lord, Sarah!" He picked her up and hugged her. He turned to Steve and Steve smiled brightly. "How did you get her here?"

"For the past few months on tour she's been with me and she came here with me but stayed in a safe house, mostly because she had no where else to stay." Steve explained. Sarah pulled her head back to look at her dad. She moved hair out of his face. She laid back down on his shoulder

"Why not have her stay with Addison?" Bucky asked. Steve's smiled faltered. He smiled sadly and then stroked the back of Sarah's head as she laid on her dad.

"We can talk about that later" Steve promised.

"Okay." Bucky didn't push it in front of Sarah. Bucky looked at his little girl and pushed the hair out of her face to see she had already fallen asleep.

"She was tired. She stayed up all night because I wasn't there. She hasn't slept without one of us since we got her." Steve commented.

"Yeah well I'm tired too." Bucky said. Steve smiled.

"I have a surprise for you." Steve told him.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. I do. Come on." Steve took Bucky in a car to an air strip. They got out of the car and Sarah ran up the stairs to plane, knowing the drill and what to do.

"What the hell are we doing here?" Bucky said, standing outside of the plane.

"You're on leave, starting right now. You, Sarah, and I are going home." Steve told him. Bucky looked at the plane, at Steve, back at the plane, and the out of nowhere he felt a tear on his face.

"Oh my god"

"Buck are you crying?" Steve asked.

"I could kiss you right now" Bucky replied. Steve was quiet for a moment. Bucky realized what he said. "I mean-"

"Why don't you?" Steve asked.

"What?" Steve walked closer to Bucky, moved the one strand of hair out of Bucky's face. For the first time they were the same height.

"If you want to, kiss me." Steve said. Bucky stood in silence for a split second before closing the gap between them, putting his hands on Steve's face and pushing their lips together. Steve responded immediately, wrapping his arms around Bucky' s neck. The kissed for a few more seconds before pulling back. They stared at each other.

"Yo, love birds, we have to go or we will have a problem" Howard yelled. They both blushed.

"Okay!" Steve yelled. They stayed there for just one more second, starting at each other and then Steve moved back so Bucky could go up the steps first.

Then they flew home.

The cab dropped them off at a hotel owned by Howard and then Howard went home to his mansion. Sarah was already asleep so Steve put her in her makeshift bed.

"Steve?"

"Yeah Buck?"

"Why didn't the cab take us home?" Bucky asked. Steve looked at him sympathetically.

"It didn't have a home to take us to." Steve said.

"What do you mean?"

"The apartment building burned down while Sarah and I were in Washington DC. Our apartment itself wasn't actually affected by the fire but the building was unstable so no one can live there anymore. The fire men let us go in for an hour and gather all our stuff. It's staying at Howard's." Steve told him. Bucky sat on the edge of the bed with a look of shock.

"Was everyone okay?" Bucky asked. Steve looked down.

"It started in Allison's apartment. Olive was staying with her grandparents from her dads side for the weekend because Allison needed a break and they wanted to spend time with her. Allison was dead within minutes. Olive is living with her dad now." It was silent. Bucky stared ahead. "Bucky?"

"Yeah, I'm good." He said. Steve pulled his shirt off.

"Hey, I'm going to take a shower. You good here?"

"Yeah."

Bucky sat in silence for Steve and then they switched. When they were both clean they laid down, facing away from each other but fairly close. It wasn't until Steve heard Bucky crying that he turned.

"Bucky?" He said. Bucky turned slowly towards him. "Why are you crying love?"

"Steve, I hate war. I hate death. I loved Allison like a sister and now she's dead. And I've killed people. I've shot men and killed them. I've watched people I fought with get shot down and I hate it. I hate death so much Steve. I hate it." He then became a sobbing wreck. Bucky was breaking down further than Steve had ever seen him.

"Bucky, I'm so sorry. I know you hate it love I know. I wish you didn't have to do this." Steve held him closer. Steve kissed Bucky's forehead and Bucky just cried. After he calmed down Bucky pulled his head off of Steve chest the wriggled out of it and say up. Steve followed in sitting up and looking at Bucky's face.

"Steve?"

"Yeah?"

"I think we should talk about what happened today." Bucky blushed as he said it.

"What, the kiss?"

"Yeah."

"Well did you like it?" Steve asked. Bucky sat for a moment before looking at Steve, moving his legs, turning, and then pressing his lips to Steve's. They kissed for a second and then pulled apart.

"Does that answer your question?" Bucky said. Steve smiled brightly.

"Yeah. It's does, but what does that make us?" He asked.

"I don't know, what do you want to be?" Bucky asked

"Well up until this morning I had liked you and not known you liked me back for 8 years."

"I felt the same for 9, since the moment I saw you stand up for that girl and get punched so hard your nose broke."

"Okay so what does that make us?" Steve asked, smiling at remembering how he met Bucky.

"I know what I want it to make us but I don't know if that's what you want and if it is, we're gonna have to hide it because that's not really accepted."

"I think I want the same thing."

"Okay then, Steven Grant Rogers, would you like to be my boyfriend?" Bucky asked.

"Hell yes I would."

"What does that mean?" Sarah asked from her chair.

"Sarah! I didn't realize you were awake baby" Steve said. He got up and picked her up. Steve

"What's boyfriends?"

"Sarah, your daddy and I are going to be together like a mom and dad would usually be, but you can't tell anyone." Bucky explained as Steve set her on the bed. She crawled into the middle, in between the two of them.

"Why not?"

"Because people don't like it so it has to be a family secret, you know like the secret about where you came from." Bucky continued.

"Oh. I get it. Okay daddy. I won't tell anyone." Sarah promised.

"Good. Now time for you to go back to sleep." Steve told her.

"Okay. I will. Love you daddy, love you dada." She hugged them both around the neck, snuggled against Spot and fell asleep, almost immediately, in between them. Bucky smiled and so did Steve.

"I still have Blinky. He's in my bag." Bucky said. Steve's smile brightened.

"You didn't loose it?"

"No and I'm never letting it go. I love it."

"Yeah. I can't believe she even gave that you you."

"I couldn't either but I'm glad she did. Every time I missed home I just hugged it close to my chest. I tried to hide it at first because I thought all the soldiers would laugh but I one day someone saw and asked me and I explained that it was my daughters and all the guys just accepted it. One time a new guy called me gay for sleeping with a stuffed animal and everyone else stood up for me."

"They did?"

"Yeah. They said "he's not gay but even if he was it doesn't matter. There's nothing wrong with that. And for the record that's his daughters."

"They said that about being gay?"

"A lot of them. Some of them didn't agree but most of them did. It was weird that so many were so accepting."

"That's strange, but good for us."

The two of them fought side by side and Sarah stayed with Maria, Howard's recent girlfriend, while they were gone.

They came home quite often and they seemed closer than ever.

In the seven months that they fought together the two of them were so in love. The last time the two of them saw Sarah together they went to dinner. They laughed and smiled and back at the hotel they danced with Sarah.

That was the last time she saw her daddy.

Steve had been reaching for him.

"I love you so much." Bucky said.

"I love you more than you know" Steve replied. Bucky let go. Steve sobbed for days. Sarah did too. She knew she was never going to see her daddy again.

Steve got up one day and he left, Maria picked Sarah up. They went to the base where she would find Peggy, sitting in a chair, starring at a computer screen.

"Peggy?" She asked. Peggy sniffed and wiped her face

"Hi sweetie" she opened her arms and Sarah walked cautiously towards her.

"What's wrong Peggy?" Sarah asked.

"Hello, can anyone hear me?" The voice was static but clearly Steve's.

"Come in, this is Captain Rogers, do you read me?"

"Steve, Steve is that you? Are you alright?" Peggy asked

"Peggy! Schmidt's dead." He replied

"What about the plane?"

"That's a little bit tougher to explain."

"Give me your coordinates, I'll find you a safe landing site" Peggy replied

"There isn't gonna be a safe landing. But I can try and force it down." He said

"I'll get Howard in the line, he'll know what to do." She stammered

"There's not enough time, this thing is going to fast and it's heading for New York." He said. The was along pause and no one dared said anything.

" I got to put her in the water." He said.

"Please don't do this, we have time, we can work it out." She said, her tears threatening to spill any moment

"Right now I'm in the middle of now where. If I wait any longer a lot of people are gonna die." he stated "Peggy, this is my choice."

"Peggy?" he said

"I'm here." She said.

"Please take care of Sarah. Please. I know you're busy and you can't keep her but make sure nothing happens to her."

"I promise. I will never let anything happen to her. I promise you that" 

"Is she there?"

"Yeah. She is."

"Sarah?" He said.

"Yes dada"

"I am so proud of you. You always do the right thing. I love you so much. You are the best daughter I could've ever asked for. I'm sorry that I won't be there for the rest of your life."

"You aren't coming back?"

"No baby. I'm not. Im so sorry."

"It's okay daddy. It's not your fault."

"I'm going to miss you Sarah, so so much." Steve said. Sarah placed her little land on the screen, as if she was reaching out to Steve. Peggy watched in admiration. Sarah remembered all the good times with her dads and what her dads had always said to her.

"Till then end of the line?" She asked. She heard Steve give a light sad laugh.

"Till the end of the line."

"I love you daddy."

"I love you t-" there was a crash and then static.

"Daddy?" She asked. He didn't respond.

"Daddy are you there?" She asked again. Nothing but static.

"Daddy?"

"He's gone honey" Peggy said. Sarah sat in thought.

"And he's not coming back?"

"No sweetheart, he's not." So Sarah cried and cried until she stopped crying.

In the year 1949 Sarah was 12 years old. She had been living with Howard Stark and his wife Maria since the day her dad died. Peggy came to visit her quite often, once a month at the least.

She missed her dads. She somehow remembered them and the men they were.

Howard had waited until she was 12 to tell her that he had found one vial of serum locked up in the doctors cabinet and that he had spent years recreating it. He had found out when she was 9, soon after the discovery of the tesseract.

When he told her, she asked if he could make her like her dad. He said he could.

Then she asked if there was anyway to save her until he finds her dad.

He said there was.

The process was painful, she already knew that. Sarah had seen her dad's transformation up close and she knew being frozen had to hurt like a bitch but she didn't care. She wanted to see him.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Maria asked.

"Yes. I do. I want to see my dad again." Sarah said.

"We will miss you but I will see you when we find him." Howard said. She hugged Maria and Howard then moved towards Peggy.

"You're going to do such great things. I'll miss you." She said. Sarah smiled.

"I'll see you on the other side?" She said.

"Yes. You will. I'll be right here." Peggy told her. Sarah hugged Peggy tight.

The process hurt but it was over pretty quick. She didn't even scream. The freezing hurt more. She could feel everything freezing one by one, each organ hurting more than the last, but once it was over she felt peaceful. It was a dream that lasted a mere 10 minutes.

When she was awoken the only people standing there were two men she didn't know.

"Hello?" She said cautiously.

"Hello Sarah. I'm Nick Fury, director of SHIELD, and this is Phil Coulson. We were informed by Howard Stark before his death that we were to wake you up if your father was found. If not to wake you up in the year 2049."

"Howard's dead?"

"Yes, along with his wife Maria" Phil answered. Sarah took a moment to process what was just said to her.

"So which is it?" She asked.

"Hmm?" Nick said

"Did you find him or is it 2049?"

"We found him."

Sarah cried with joy. They put her in a car. They pulled into a large open square and there were many things there Sarah didn't understand but she didn't really care because she could also see her dad, running barefoot in the middle of the road. She jumped out of the car before she stopped.

"Dad!" She screamed. He stopped and turned towards her. He tilted his head.

"Sarah?" He asked.

"Yes." She said.

"No. You can't be. My daughter is only five. You are not my daughter."

"Yes I am. I am your daughter. I'm twelve but I'm still Sarah" She told him. He moved closer but Steve was clearly skeptical.

"Have I been asleep for 7 years?"

"No dad, you've been asleep for 70"

"What? How could you be twelve and I have been asleep for 70 years."

"Howard stark injected me with the serum and froze me."

"What?"

"He recreated the serum from and small vile he found and then created the serum then he froze me for 70 years. I went under in 1949 and came out this year in 2012."

"So I've missed 7 years of your life." It wasn't a question, it was more like a statement.

"Yes." Sarah answered anyways.

"Oh my god." He pulled her into him and hugged her. He kissed her forehead. It was in this moment she started crying.

"I missed you so much." Sarah cried.

"I'm so so sorry. Leaving you was the hardest decision I have ever made." He kissed her forehead again.

"If you two do not mind, we are in the middle of time square." Nick said. Sarah backed away and wiped her tears.

"Yes. Sorry." Sarah apologized. Sarah began to start walking but Steve didn't move. He looked around. 

"Dad, are you okay?" She asked, holding onto his hand.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just thinking about how much your dad would love this." He told Sarah

"Yeah he would."

Sarah smiled.


	2. The Avengers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rogers-Barnes, Sarah Grace
> 
> Birthdate:  
> July 4th, 1937 (assumed)
> 
> Residence:  
> SHIELD facility, Manhattan 
> 
> Parents:  
> (adoptive)  
> Rogers, Steven  
> Barnes, James

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's next chapter, let me know what you think!
> 
> Sorry for any mistakes, I attempted to fix them but I probably missed some.

It was the year 2012

Sarah had been doing pull-ups with her music turned all the way up in her earbuds when Nick had walked in. At first, she chose to ignore him but when her dad sat down with a file and looked solemnly at it she jumped off the bar and pulled out her headphones. She walked up next to her dad. 

"Who took it from you?" Steve asked, handing Sarah the file. Sarah took and opened it. 

The tesseract. 

"A fellow named Loki. He's not from around here." 

Sarah furrowed her brows, looked at the file one more time, and then handed it back to Nick. She then walked away. 

"And what do you want us to do about it?" She asked. 

"Help us get it back?" 

"Is that a question?" 

"Well it's a question on whether you're gonna do it." Nick said. He faced her for another second and then turned to Steve, who had began to collect his things. He picked up one of the punching bags. Sarah grabbed her bag and placed her phone in the front pocket. 

"Is there anything you should tell us about the tesseract we ought to know now?" He called out. 

"You should have left it in the water." Steve said, walking out. 

"And you?" Nick looked at Sarah. She glared at him.  

"That thing killed both of my parents. Sure, I got one back but my other dad is still dead because of that alien technology. I don't know what the hell you were doing with that thing." Sarah stepped closer. "But whatever it was drew attention to it and now it's gone. You should have left it alone. Messing with things you don't understand is what gets people killed. I'll help get it back but if I do, it goes far away from you." 

"And who does it go then to, you?"

"No sir. I don't want it. I want it back where it belongs. Put it back where it came from and never bring it to earth again." She said and with that she began to walk away. 

"You really think you can control what we do with that cube?" 

"Fury, you know I can. Don't test me because when it comes to the murder of my father, I will do anything, and I mean absolutely anything, to avenge it." And she was gone. 

She had never felt so sick in her life. 

She had read the file on her and her parents almost right after she woke up. She had stared right at the deceased stamp right over Bucky's photo for an hour. She had read the file on the tesseract before and it made her want to throw up then but the idea of someone having it, having that weapon. She couldn't stop shaking. 

Steve had noticed this when she had been holding onto him on the back of motorcycle. She had run straight up the stairs and unlocked the door, not saying a word, just slamming it behind her. Steve followed behind closely. 

"Sarah?" He called out. He heard the shower start so he sat on the couch and waited for her to come out. When the door finally opened, Steve stood up. 

"Sarah?" He called. She stopped walking towards her room and stood still in the hallway. 

"Yes?" She had tried to sound as inconspicuous as possible but her voice broke as she said it. He approached her in the hallway and met her face to face. 

"Baby?" He asked. She had been looking down and had kept it together for a second but the minute her eyes met his, she broke. Steve caught her and sat down slowly on the hardwood floor of the carpet. 

"I miss him dad. I miss him so much." Sarah cried. She felt helpless, weak, stupid. 

"I do too Sarah. Everyday, and you've had to live with it much longer than I have. I'm so sorry baby." He hugged her closer and she just sobbed. When she had finally stopped, it was because she had fallen asleep. Steve laid her on the couch and then went to go pack their stuff. 

When Sarah woke up she was on a small plane. 

"What?" She said. 

"Sarah, you're awake." Steve said. 

"Yes I am. Where are we?" She yawned

"We're on our way to the helicarrier" Phil said. Sarah smiled. 

"Hey Phil." She said. 

"Hello Sarah." He nodded his head politely. 

"What's a helicarrier?" Sarah asked, standing up and walking over to her dad. 

"Kinda hard to explain. It's kinda a boat and kinda a plane." 

"What?"

"You'll see when we get there." He said. She decided to not push it any further. She just stand quietly and wait. 

They landed not five minutes later.

This first thing Sarah saw was Bruce Banner. She smiled and ran off the plane 

"Doctor Banner!" She called. He turned around 

"Oh. Hi. Yeah, they told me they you'd be coming." 

"Yeah. I'm just here to help. Hey your work in biometric scaling and gamma radiation are brilliant. I've read all your published papers, it's amazing what you've continued to discover considering how you've been in 'hiding' for 3 years. I'm impressed." Sarah said, shaking his hand. 

"Sarah, love, let the man breathe" Steve said, shaking Bruce's hand. 

"How old are you?" He asked, looking at Sarah. 

"Technically I'm like 85 but in my mind I'm twelve." She said. 

"You're very mature. I would have guessed 16." 

"Well that's good. A twelve year old amongst a bunch of adults, some unparalleled scientists and genius engineers, I have to be at the same level" 

"Um, boys. You might want to get inside, it's gonna get a little hard to breathe." Natasha called out. They all walked to the edge and looked over. 

"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked. 

"Really, they want me in a submerged pressurized container?" Bruce said. Sarah looked out and smiled. 

"It's not a submarine." She said. The boat began lifting out of the water. 

"Oh no. This is much worse." Bruce said. Sarah laughed. 

"Come on." She said. Sarah walked towards where Natasha had been standing and the men followed behind her. They followed her through a long hallway and made it to a room, completely filled with computers. 

Sarah was in heaven. 

"Holy shit." 

"Sarah!" 

"Sorry dad." 

She wasn't really sorry. 

She walked up to Nick and watched her dad hand him ten bucks. She didn't know what it was for but if she was being honest, she didn't care. She looked out at the sky and she could see everything. 

"Dr. Banner, thank you for coming." Nick shook his hand. 

"Thank you for asking nicely. So how long am I here for?" He was clearly anxious about being in a giant Flying Fortress, or around a bunch of things that could set him off. Sarah made a mental note to watch him and calm him if necessary. 

"Once we find the cube, you're in the wind." 

"Where are you with that?" 

Sarah kinda stopped listening until she heard the word laboratory. 

"There a lab on here?" Sarah asked. Natasha smirked. 

"Ms, Romanoff, if you could show Dr. Banner to the laboratory please. Sarah will join him soon, but first, her and Phil are going to talk"

Natasha nodded. She looked at Phil then followed him. 

"You're gonna love it, it's got all the toys." Natasha said as Sarah walked away. She walked into a room with Phil. He indicated for her to sit so she did and he sat across from her. 

"We ran your DNA in the system, in hopes to find your real parents in the case your Dad was never found and you needed a family. The results were slightly shocking." Coulson said. He pulled a file and pushed in towards her. 

"What's this?" She asked. 

"Read it." 

She opened the file and looked down. All of her information was in it. 

Rogers-Barnes, Sarah Grace

Birthdate:  
July 4th, 1937 (assumed)

Residence:  
SHIELD facility, Manhattan 

Parents:  
(adoptive)  
Rogers, Steven  
Barnes, James

(biological)  
Wilson, Wilma (powers)  
Stark, Howard 

Sarah stopped reading. She looked up. 

"My dad was Howard?"

"Yes." He replied. Sarah took a deep breath. 

"And what does this mean? Powers?"

"Your mother was born with the power to control objects and people minds. We assume you would have them too."

"Well I don't! I've never moved anything with my mind, ever."

"It is said that a stressful event in your teenage years are supposed to bring them to light."

"No! This can't be happening!" Sarah stormed out of the room and all the way to the lab. She stood at the doorway for a moment before entering. 

The lab was small but clearly high tech and Sarah wasn't complaining. If she could, Sarah would have started working immediately but she didn't really know what's happening. She hadn't been listening. 

"What exactly are we doing?" She asked. 

"Well were gonna search the entire world for gamma rays using a lot of spectrometers that were placed on lab roofs." Sarah smiled. 

"Sweet." 

She then became aquatinted with the equipment.

"So, Sarah, what is it like having such a dramatic change in time periods?" Bruce asked 

"Well, I was living with Howard Stark" she paused after his name."for-um-seven years of my life and he was always ahead of the curve so I was a bit behind but the technology wasn't so unfamiliar that I was taken completely aback by the sudden change." She told him. 

"How do you think he's doing?" 

"He's doing good. He seems to be holding faith that everything has worked out the way it's supposed to and that keeps him going."

"And you don't believe that?"

"No. I don't believe it. I don't even believe life has meaning so why would I believe everything works out the way it's supposed to." 

"You're twelve right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"You just seem a bit to young to be such a nihilist." Bruce said. 

"What's wrong with nihilism?" Sarah responded. 

"Nothing really but most kids believe life has reasoning behind it."

"Yeah well I'm not delusional. Don't get me wrong, I love my dad and I believe that I want to find love and live a good life but that doesn't mean there's a reason to life. We just live and then we die. No reason or rhyme to it. Bing bang bong." Sarah continued to mess with the computer, reading the screen.

"Okay." 

"Hey Bruce?"

"Yeah?"

"How small of a radiation are we looking for?"

"Very small."

"Most gamma-ray spectrometers have a hard time reading rays so far away. Just because the energy of each photon of EM radiation is proportional to its frequency, and gamma rays have sufficient energy that they are typically observed by counting individual photons doesn't mean that they can read very small gamma rays from miles away." She continued to stare at the screen. 

"What's your IQ?" Bruce asked after a moment of silence. 

"153. Why?"

"You're almost Einstein territory."

"What are you?" 

"151" 

"So you're also almost Einstein territory." 

"Yes but you're younger than me and you you're smarter. You have time to improve the score." 

"And you don't?" 

"Not as much time."

"Not necessarily. We're about to go to war." 

"Not necessarily. We may bring him in without a fight." 

"Not likely. He seems like he has a plan to take the world down or something like that." 

"Perhaps he just wants the tesseract, maybe he'll leave with it."

"Dr. Banner, you are highly optimistic. Tell me, when is the last time that the world was fair?"

"Never."

"So, following that logic, what would make you think that he would just leave with no problems?"

"I was just hoping however I didn't really expect it." 

"So, Dr. Banner, how are we gonna stop him from trying to take over the earth?"

"Stop calling me Dr. Banner, please."

"What exactly do you want me to call you?"

"Bruce is preferable."

"Okay. Bruce then. How are we gonna stop him?"

"We're gonna find that cube."

3 hours later and they had gotten nowhere, however Steve ran into the room quite urgently. 

"Sarah, we found him. I'm off to go capture him." 

"I'm coming with you."

"No. It's too dangerous."

"Father, I'm just as strong as you and I can protect myself." 

"I'm not doubting-"

"I'm coming. There is no way you're going to stop me so you should just stop trying." Sarah stood her ground. Steve stared at her for a moment. 

"Why are you so stubborn?" 

"Because I was raised by Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, and Howard Stark." She responded. Steve smiled and kissed her forehead. 

"Suit up." Steve ran down the hall. Sarah turned back towards Bruce. 

"Well then, if I find the cube I'll make sure it comes back here immediately." Sarah promised. With that Sarah ran out in the same direction as her father. She put on her suit and ran to the Quinjet. 

"Sarah." Natasha said. 

"Ms. Romanoff" 

"Call me Natasha or Agent or something other than that."

"Why?"

"Because I don't like it. Makes me feel old." Sarah was about to say something but Steve walked in so she kept her mouth shut. They flew out. 

It took the twenty minutes to get there. Natasha began looking for a safe landing spot. 

"You told me that you found him but where?"

"Stuttgart Germany." 

"What the hell is he doing in Germany?" Sarah asked. 

"We don't know yet. All we know is he's there." I looked out the window to see what was happening on the street.  

"Dad, Shield!" She demanded. 

"What?"

"Shield, now!" He there the shield at her. "Get as close to the ground as you can." She opened the doors and jumped out, landing exactly where she wanted to. The blast hit the shield then bounced off and hit Loki in the chest.  
Her dad landed next to her. 

"You know the last time I was in Germany and I saw a man standing above everybody else we ended up disagreeing." Steve said. Sarah handed him his shield. 

"The soldiers." Loki spat."The family out of time" Sarah laughed. 

"We aren't the ones out of time." She replied.  Loki glared and then shot at her. She flipped over it. He attempted to shoot again but she kicked his hand. He moved to the left and her dad punched him in the stomach. She was about to throw a punch when he knocked her down. He placed is staff on her head. 

"Kneel" he ordered. 

"Never." Steve threw his shield at Loki and Loki threw it to the ground. Sarah roundhouse kicked Loki in the face. Loki fell. Then AC/DC started blasting. Steve and Sarah looked up to see Iron man flying above them. He landed and aimed a bunch of explosives at him. 

"Make a move reindeer games." 

Loki raised his hands in surrender and his helmet and armor vanished. 

"Good move." 

Steve picked up his shield and moved next to Sarah. 

"Tony."

"Sarah"

"Mr. Stark"

"Cap'n" 

Tony was a dick, that was just a known fact. When he asked Steve how he stayed so young when he was so old, Sarah wanted to punch him in face however the lightning Storm gave her bigger worries. 

"Where this coming from?" Natasha asked. 

"Oh no." Sarah murmured. Steve looked at her and the at Loki. 

"What's the matter, afraid of a little lightning?" Sarah moved in front of the door.

"I'm not particularly fond of what follows." Then the Quinjet shook and something landed on it. Well, more like someone. 

"Damn it." Sarah cursed. Steve looked at her again. 

"What? What is it?"

The doors opened. 

"Thor, think about what you're doing and then please don't." Sarah pleaded. He ignored her and grabbed Loki and then he left. Sarah grabbed a parachute. 

"That's Thor, isn't he a good guy?" Tony asked. 

"Doesn't matter, if he frees Loki or even kills him then the tesseract may be lost. We need him." Sarah jumped out. She followed to hopefully where they landed. When she landed on the rock she saw them. 

"You listen here brother." A moment in the blinding air and then Thor was just gone. 

"I'm listening" 

"Loki, stay right there or so help me god when I find you I will kill you."

Sarah jumped down and landed by Tony in the woods. 

"Shakespeare in the park. Doth mother know you wearing her drapes?"

"Hey Tony, do me a huge favor and shut your gigantic mouth." She said. 

"Listen kid, I do not take orders from nine year olds." Sarah looked away but then turned back and flipped him over. 

"I'm twelve." She turned back to Thor. "I know you just want to Loki safe. Help us find the cube so it can be returned to where it belongs, on Asgard and you can save him. We get the cube and our people back then they will be more lenient than if you and him fight. That will only get you in trouble. Please Thor. Please." He looked like he was going to do what she asked and back off. 

"Yeah, just put the hammer down. Tourist" Tony said. Sarah cursed under her breath. 

"You want me to put the hammer down?" Thor jumped forward and began to bring the hammer down. Just then Steve landed and he came with the shield down.the hammer smashed on the shield, created a loud noise and taking trees down around it. Everyone but Steve fell back. 

Sarah stood up carefully. 

"Are we done now?" She asked angrily. 

"Yes ma'm"

"Yeah."

"Good." She said.  

She followed behind Loki as he went to his cell. She glared at him as she walked away. She made it back to the lab just in time to hear the end of his speech with Bruce but she had heard the rest of it being projected throughout the rest of the carrier. She looked at him. 

"Bruce, you good?" She asked

"Yeah."

"You aren't a monster." She said. He looked at her. 

"Aren't I?" He said. She looked at him for a moment and then he walked out of the room. She followed after him but by the time she caught up, he was in the conference space. He sat down and she stood in the back of the room, arms folded, leaning against the wall. 

"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked. 

"He has an army called the Chitauri, not of Asgard nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." Thor returned. Sarah nodded her head. 

"An army, from outer space." Steve murmured 

"So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." Bruce said. 

"Selvig?"

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend."

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Natasha told him. 

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here." Steve said. 

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him." Bruce said. 

"I don't care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days."

"He's adopted."

There was a short pause. Sarah stared at them and then decided to break the uncomfortable silence. 

"Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?" She asked. Just then Stark walked in. 

"It's a stabilizing agent. Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD." He looked at Thor and hit him in the shoulder "No hard feelings Point Break, you've got a mean swing." He turned back to Sarah and Bruce. "Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." Just then Tony started rambling about something Sarah didn't care about. She rolled her eyes. "How does Fury even see these?" 

"He turns." Maria says. 

"Sounds exhausting." Pause "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube." He turned back towards everyone in the room 

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Maria asked. 

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony asked. He was ignored. 

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked. 

"He has to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Sarah told him. 

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunnelling effect." Tony said. 

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet." Bruce said. 

"Finally, people who speak English." Tony said 

"Is that what just happened?" Steve said

"It's good to meet you, Sarah." He shook her hand. She stared at him for a moment and then he turned to Bruce. "Dr. Banner. You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

"Thanks." 

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him and Sarah." Nick entered the room. 

"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon." Steve said. 

"It's not magic. It's science." Sarah responded. There was a silence. 

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys." Nick said. 

"Monkeys? I do not understand." Thor said. 

"I do! I understood that reference." Steve yelled. Sarah looked at him and then walked away. Tony and Bruce followed behind. The three of them dat in the lab and began working. Sarah sat on the floor, looking at Selvig's notes and the readings on Loki's staff. 

"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process." Sarah commented. 

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops." Stark said. 

"All I packed was a tooth brush." Bruce mumbled. 

"You know, you two should come by Stark Towers sometime. Top ten floors, all RND. You'd love it, it's candy land." 

"I'm down." Sarah said. Tony looked at Bruce. 

"Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke...Harlem."

"Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension. No surprises." Then, suddenly he poked Bruce with an electrical shock. 

"Ow!" Tony looked at Bruce closely

"Nothing?" He asked. Sarah judged him and glared but said nothing and continued to work. 

"Hey! Are you nuts?" 

"Jury's out." He turned back to Bruce." You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?" Sarah snorted. Steve looked at her and she stopped laughing and looked back down at the notes. 

"Is everything a joke to you?"

"Funny things are."

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense, doctor."

"No, it..it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things" he replied. Sarah smiled 

"You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut." Tony said. Bruce chuckled. 

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark."

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us. I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables." 

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asked. Sarah looked up, now becoming interested in the conversation. 

"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets. It's bugging her too, isn't it? And him." He pointed at Sarah and Bruce. Sarah looked down. 

"Sarah?"

"Yes father?" 

"Is it bothering you?"

"Well yeah, It seems strange that he didn't call even me in before. Why would he hide the fact that he's experimenting with the cube from the person who knows the most about the cube. It seems off that I could have given him way more useful information and yet he didn't tell us until it was gone." She said. Steve nodded and looked at Bruce then everyone did. He noticed everyone staring. 

"Uh...I just wanna finish my work here and..." 

"Doctor?" Steve asked. Bruce took a deep breath in and looked at him. 

"A warm light for all mankind to share', Loki's jab at Fury about the cube." 

"I heard it." 

"Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news." He pointed at Tony. Steve thought for a moment. 

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly...building in New York?" Steve said. 

"So why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? Or even Sarah? I mean, What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I should probably look into that once my decryption programme finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files." Tony interrupted. 

"I'm sorry, did you say...?" Steve asked. 

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide." Tony pointed his bag in Steve's direction. Blueberry? 

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?" 

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically not awesome."

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them."

"Following is not really my style."

"And you're all about style, aren't you?"

"Of the people in this room, which one is; a) wearing a spangly outfit, and b) not of use?" Tony jabbed. Steve opened his mouth to respond. 

"Okay father, that's enough." Sarah interrupted. Steve looked at Sarah, who was now standing in between Tony and Steve. 

"Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?" Bruce asked. 

"Just find the cube." Then he left. Sarah almost followed but she stopped herself. 

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about? Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice." 

"Hey! He's not wrong about Loki, he does have the jump on us." Sarah said eyeing him. She picked up a highlighter and sat back down. 

"What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit. It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does." 

"And I'll read all about it." Bruce replied, interfering. 

"Uh-huh. Or you'll be suiting up like the rest of us."

"Ah, see. I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare."

"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart. This stops it. This little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armor. It's a terrible privilege." 

Sarah sat, listening. 

"But you can control it."

"Because I learned how." 

"It's different."

"Hey, I've read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you."

"So you're saying that the Hulk, the other guy, saved my life? That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Save it for what?" 

"I guess we'll find out." Sarah interrupted

"You may not enjoy that." Bruce warned. 

"You just might." She replied. 

The three of them continued to work until the files finally came through. The three of them were standing around a computer when Nick walked in. 

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" Nick asked

"Uh...kind of been wondering the same thing about you."

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." 

"We are, the signals locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile." Bruce defended. 

"And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss." Tony said. 

"So what's phase 2?" Sarah asked. Just then Steve walked into the lab and threw a gun down on the table. 

"Phase 2 is SHIELD used the cube to make weapons. Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're..." Nick began. 

"I'm sorry, Nick. Tony turned the screen towards Fury. "What were you lying?"

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit." Thor and Natasha walked in.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Natasha 

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?"

"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed."

"Loki's manipulating you."

"And you've been doing what exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you." 

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him." Fury said, pointing at Thor

"Me?" Thor seemed shocked. 

"Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge mass that levelled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, out gunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet"

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."

"Like you controlled the cube?" Sarah asked. 

"You're work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?" Steve asked. 

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something."

"A nuclear deterrent, cause that always calms everything right down." Tony commented. 

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Nick asked 

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep..." Steve began. 

"Wait! Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor said. 

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Nick asked. 

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos." 

"It's his M.O., isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're...we're a time-bomb." Bruce interrupted. 

"You need to step away." Nick said. 

"Why shouldn't they guy let off a little steam?" Tony asked, placing his had on Steve shoulder 

"You know damn well why! Back off!" Steve asked, smacking it away

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you." Sarah looked down thinking about her dad." I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"Dad, that's enough." Sarah said. 

"I think I would just cut the wire."

"Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero, like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds."

"Enough!" Sarah said to her dad. He looked at her. "Shut up both of you."

Thor began to laugh. 

"You people are so petty, and tiny."

"Yeah, this is a team." Bruce said. 

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his..."

"Where? You're renting my room."

"The cell was just..."

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know, I tried. I got low, I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on, I focused on helping other people. I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?" Everyone stared at him. Fury unhooked his gun and everyone got into a defensive stance. 

"Bruce." Sarah said. "Put down the scepter." She said. He looked down at it and then heard the beep. 

"Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my party trick after all." He commented. Him and Sarah went back behind the desk and looked at the computer. 

"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asked. 

"I can get there faster." Tony asked. 

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it." Thor said. Tony turned to leave but Steve stopped him.

"You're not going alone" Steve said

"You gonna stop me?"

"Put on the suit, let's find out."

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"Put on the suit" Just then Sarah noticed where the beep was coming from. 

"Down!" She screamed but she was too late. The explosion went off sending everybody in different directions. Sarah felt something hit her in the head and she fell to the ground. 

Sarah brought her head up and looked around the lab. She saw her dad and Tony. Steve helped Tony up. 

"Put on the suit!"

"Yep!"

Sarah had planned to follow behind but she passed out before she could. When she came to she was sitting in a bed. She sat up to see her dad standing there, looking at her. 

"I'm glad you're alright. You scared the shit out of me kid." Steve said, grabbing her hand. 

"What happened?" She asked. 

"The blast knocked out a metal pole. It hit you in the head, threw you for a loop but you're fine. You can get up whenever you feel ready." 

Sarah shook her head. And then sat up. She looked around the room. 

"Where is everyone else?" She asked. 

"Everybody else is fine, well except for Bruce, Thor and Coulson." 

"What? Where are they?" Sarah asked, frantic, think about Bruce 

"Thor was trapped in the cell, Loki threw him out. Loki killed Coulson." Sarah looked down. She didn't know what to say about him so she said nothing. 

"And Bruce?"

"We don't know. He turned into the hulk and tore the place apart. A tech had pulled you out of the lab a few minutes prior to Bruce coming in and tearing it apart."

"You don't know where he is?" 

"No. We don't. I'm sorry."

"Well we have to find him." She said, standing up. Steve followed after her. 

"First we have to go stop Loki?"

"Stop him?"

"He's gone. We know where he is. We have to go get him."

So Sarah followed her dad to where Natasha was. 

"Time to go." Steve said, walking into Clint Barton's room. 

"Go where?" Natasha asked. 

"I'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?"

"I can." Clint said, coming through the door. He looked at Natasha and she nodded. 

"You got a suit?" Steve asked. 

"Yeah." Clint nodded

"Then suit up."

Sarah followed her dad to the Quinjet. 

"Excuse me, you can't be in here"

"Son. Don't." Steve warned. He gave him a look and the boy left. Sarah sat on the plane as they flew. When she got to New York she looked out the window at the madness. 

"Stark, we're heading north east." Natasha said over the radio. 

"What, did you stop for drive-thru? Swing that park, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you." The plane crashed but Sarah got out without a reaction, smirked, and then began going after the aliens. After a few moments, she heard a disturbing noise and looked up. 

"What the hell?" She murmured 

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asked. Sarah looked over in her dads direction. 

"I'm seeing, still working on believing. Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?" Tony replied hopefully. 

"Banner?" Steve asked. 

"Just keep me posted."

Sarah kept fighting with no blind spot. She felt strangely strong, remembering what Fury had told her. She chose to ignore it. 

Sarah continued to fight, tirelessly until Thor got on the ground. 

"How do we do this?" Sarah asked, throwing to Chitatri heads together 

"As a team." Steve replied. 

"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor continued. 

"Yeah, get in line." Clinton said. 

"Save it. Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without him these things could run wild. We got Stark up top, he's gonna need us..." Bruce interrupted Sarah, riding up on a motorbike. 

"So, this all seems horrible." He said, getting off of it. 

"I've seen worse." Natasha said, eyeing him. 

"Sorry."

"No, we could use a little worse."

"Stark, we got him, Banner, just like you said." Steve informed Tony. 

"Tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you." Tony said, bring the giant alien towards them. 

"I don't see how that's a party." Natasha said. 

"Bruce, now might be a good time for you to get angry." Sarah said as he walked towards it. 

"That's my secret, Barnes. I'm always angry." He transformed into the Hulk and smashed the giant alien. It fell and everyone fell into a formation, like a team. Sarah looked up at Tony and realized fully for the first time that he was her brother. 

"Guys." Natasha said. They all looked up and stared at the large group coming through the portal. 

"Call it, Captain." Tony said. 

"Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or your turn it to ash."

"Wanna give me a lift?" Barton asked Tony. 

"Right. Better clench up, Legolas." He replied. Sarah laughed lightly. 

"Thor, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal, slow them down. You've got the lightning, light the bastards up." Thor nodded and flew off. He looked at Sarah. "Work with the police. Contain citizens, get them out of danger and stay alive." Sarah nodded her head, hugged him, he kissed her on the forehead, and she ran off.

"You and me, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here." He said to Natasha. Then he looked at Bruce. "And Hulk-" he paused. 

"Smash"

The fighting continued. People did as they were ordered and they did a damn good job however more kept coming.

"Captain, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal." Natasha told him. 

"She's right dad." Sarah said over the coms. 

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it." 

"Well, maybe it's not about guns." Natasha said tiredly. Sarah turned down her com and then continued to funnel people out of the bank building. 

She followed officers and then she stopped when she got shot out with a bomb. She looked over at her dad, laying next to her. He stood up then helped her. The looked at each other then went off their separate ways. The she heard Nat. 

"I can close it! Can anybody hear me? I can shut the portal down!"

"Do it!" Steve urged. 

"No, wait!"

"Stark, these things are still coming!"

"I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it." He said. Everyone looked up at the portal. 

"No way, Tony. Are you insane? You can't come back from that!" Sarah said. 

"Sarah"

"Absolutely not! You can't do that."

"Now you want to act like my sister?" He joked. 

"What?" Steve asked. 

"You knew?"

"Of course I did. You act just like him."

"You can't go."

"I have to kid. You know I do. It's okay. I want to do this. You'll be fine, you don't need me as a big brother."

"Technically I'm older."

"Yeah well"

"You can't."

"I'm sorry."

And then he was gone. He flew through.  
She waited a moment and then Steve ordered Natasha to close it. Sarah ran to her dad just in time to see Tony fall back through. She smiled. 

"Sun of a gun" Steve mumbled. 

"He's not slowing down." Thor said. He made his way to stop him but Hulk gabbed him and put him in the ground. Sarah removed his mask. 

"No." She said. 

"Sarah-" Steve started. 

"NO!" She screamed. She felt a burst of energy go through her hands and then Stark started breathing again.

"What the hell?" Steve asked. She looked at him

"I'll tell you later."

"What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me?" Tony sat up and Sarah's arms went around him. He hugged her back.

"We won." Steve looked relieved. Sarah pulled back and Tony fell back to where he had been lying down. 

"Yay. Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it." He rambled 

"We're not finished yet." Thor said. Tony looked disappointed 

"And then shawarma after." Tony said.  

Loki woke up to the Avengers surrounding him. He looked around. 

"If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now."

He didn't get it. Loki was returned to Asgard along with the cube. Bruce went with Tony, Natasha and Clint went God knows where, and Sarah went with her dad. 

"I still find it hard to believe. You're Howard Starks daughter."

"Biologically, yeah but in my mind I'm your daughter. You're my dad and knowing who my biological parents are doesn't change that." Sarah told him, pouring herself some water. 

"You have powers." He continued. 

"Yeah. I do." She replied. 

Sarah smirked.


	3. The Winter Soldier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarah peaked around the corner to see Nick Fury sitting in her arm chair, the one she sits in at midnight and study's notes while 50's music plays on record in the background. 
> 
> Sarah looked at him and could sense something was off. He was in pain. 
> 
> And he was bleeding in her chair
> 
> "I don't remember giving you a key."
> 
> Sarah didn't care about that, Sarah was still confused why he was bleeding and steaming over the fact that not only was he bleeding but he was doing it in her arm chair.

It was the year 2014. 

Sarah had been out running with her dad when she fell ahead of him. She ran 4 laps before seeing her dad standing with another man. She stopped and looked at him. 

"Oh, Sam, this is my daughter Sarah. Sarah, this is Sam. Ex-military." She stepped forward and shook his hand. 

"Hi." She said. 

Sarah had grown up in the two years since New York. She had been training herself with her powers and become stronger. She can do almost anything with them and she had reluctantly accepted them as a apart of her. 

She also spent a lot of time with Tony. She had her own room in his tower, along with her dad, and she spent at least one night a week there and most days. She practically lived in his lab and gym. She didn't go to school, she didn't really need to. She spent all the time with Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, experimenting and building. 

Also she was a genius. 

She had also grown up in looks. She was taller, more mature, and was always mistaken for older than she was. She didn't really mind. 

"Hello." Sam replied. She was about to say something to him when her phone buzzed. She looked at it, then her dad. 

"Well, we have to go. Job calls. It was nice to meet you." Sarah said. 

"It was nice to meet you." He said. She looked over at Natasha as she pulled up to the curb. 

"Can anybody tell me where the Smithsonian is, I'm here to pick up a couple of fossils." Natasha joked. 

"Very funny" Steve said. Sarah laughed and turned away from Sam. 

She smiled at Natasha and hopped in the back the Steve got in the front. Sam leaned down. 

"Hey there." He flirted. Sarah laughed. 

"Hi" she replied. 

"Can't run everywhere." Steve laughed 

"No you can't."

The car drive off. 

"The target is a mobile satellite launch platform: The Lemurian Star. It was sending up their last payload when pirates took them, ninety-three minutes ago." Rumlow said.

"Any demands?" Steve asked.

"A billion and a half."

"Why so steep?"

"Because it SHIELD's."

"So it's not off course, it's trespassing" Sarah said, gathering her gear

"I'm sure they have a good reason." Natasha replied.

"You know, I'm getting a little tired of being Fury's janitor." Steve told Natasha

"Relax, it's not that complicated."

"How many pirates?" Sarah asked, interrupting.

"Twenty-five, top mercs, led by this guy. Georges Batroc." Run low put a picture at the top of the screen. "Ex-TGSE, Action Division. He's at the top of Interpol's "red notice". Before the French demobilized him, he had thirty-six kill missions. This guy's got a rep for maximum casualties."

"Hostages?" Steve asked

"Uh...mostly techs. One officer, Jasper Sitwell. They're in the galley."

"What's Sitwell doing on a launch ship?" Sarah asked. Steve raised his shoulders.

"Alright, I'm gonna sweep the deck and find Batroc. Nat, you'll kill the engines and wait for instructions. Rumlow, you sweep aft, find the hostages, get them to life pods. get 'em out. Sarah, go to the computers, shut the ship down. I want no cameras and no security. Don't let it go anywhere. Let's go."

"STRIKE, you heard the Captain. Gear up!" Rumlow said.

"Secure channel seven."

"Seven secure. You do anything fun Saturday night?"

"Well, Sarah has an obsession with working in the lab and all the guys from my barbershop quartet are dead, so... No, not really."

"Coming up by the drop zone, Cap." Rumlow said.

"You know, if you ask Kristen out, from Statistics, she'll probably say yes." Natasha told Steve. Sarah laughed.

"That's why I don't ask." Steve said. Natasha frowned. The doors to the jet opened. Sarah and Steve walked to the edge of the platform.

"Too shy or too scared?"

"Too busy!" Steve jumped out. Sarah looked out and then she jumped, throwing her hands down beside her and then landing safely on the boat feet down. She immediately saw a pirate.

"Hi." She said. He had a moment of hesitation before put his gun up. She threw her hands up and pulled his hands down. He looked confused how she was doing it without touching him.

"Its magic." She said. She knocked him out and then moved on. She threw her shield up and worked her way to the deck. She saw her dad, a gun to his head.

"Ne bougez pas!" He yelled. Sarah was about to snap his neck when a shot rang out. She saw Rumlow and smiled.

"Thanks." Steve said

"Yeah. You seemed pretty helpless without me." He replied. Natasha and the rest of the men landed next to them. Natasha started talking about dating again.

"What about the nurse across the hall, she seems nice."

"You know his last real relationship was with a man right?" Sarah asked as she was walking away.

"Sarah, computers now. Natasha, engine room. Then try to find me a date."

"I'm multi-tasking" Natasha yelled, jumping off the bar. Sarah smiled and ran to the computers. She entered the room. She saw the main workstation and made her way to it. She stood there, staring at the keyboard and tried to start the process of decoding it but she couldn't

"What the hell?" She said. She opened a file and saw it was encrypted. All of them were and uncrackable. She opened her phone, dialed Tony's number, and then connected it to her headset. After a few rings, he picked up.

"Hey, how's DC?"

"Fine. I'm currently not there though because I'm in a covert SHIELD vessel that has been taken over by pirates. I was trying to keep the pirates from seeing us on the camera before I wanted them to however the computer will not let me do it. It says it is encrypted and I can't crack it"

"If you can't crack it, how the hell do you expect me too?"

"I don't know." Sarah saw Natasha enter the room which was suspicious. "Listen Tony, I can't talk right now, can I call you later?"

"Yeah of course. Call me anytime. Love you Barnes"

"Love you too Stark." And then she hung up.

"What did Tony want?

"To see how DC was I assume but I didn't talk to him for long enough to find out." Sarah lied "Better question is what do you want?"

"I have to do something."

"Like what?"

"It's classified."

"You're supposed to be helping with the hostages."

"Nick gave me a separate mission." She entered a flash drive into the monitor next to Sarah.

"My dad won't be happy." Sarah said, still attempting to crack the encryption.

"Yeah well, Rogers knows I'm not one for being told what to do." So she started transferring files to on the hard drive and Sarah said nothing, until her dad threw someone into a door that is.

"Well this is awkward." Natasha said

"Only for you, I'm supposed to be here." Sarah retorted

"What are you doing here?" Steve asked.

"Backing up the hard drive. It's a good habit to get into."

"Rumlow needed your help. What the hell are you doing here?" He walked over and looked at what she was doing. "You're saving SHIELD Intel."

"Whatever I can get my hands on."

"Our mission is to rescue hostages."

"No. That's your mission." She pulls the hard drive out. "And you've done it beautifully."

She turned to leave and Steve grabbed her arm. 

"You just jeopardized this whole operation." Steve said. Sarah looked over at Batroc

"I think that's overstating things." 

"Guys!" Sarah yells. They both look at him. Steve puts his shield up and grabs Natasha. She shoots the window and they jumps through, Sarah threw up her shield. 

"Okay. That one's on me." Sarah heard. 

"You damn right." Steve stood up and left. 

Sarah and Steve walked into Nick's office. 

"You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?" Sarah asked, sitting in a chair. 

"I didn't lie. Agent Romanoff had a different mission than yours." Nick replied 

"Which you didn't feel obliged to share." Steve replied. 

"I'm not obliged to do anything."

"Those hostages could've died, Nick."

"I sent the greatest soldiers in history to make sure that didn't happen."

"Soldiers trust each other, that's what makes it an army. Not a bunch of guys running around and shooting guns." 

The last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye." Nick took a deep breath and sat down. "Look, I didn't want you doing anything you weren't comfortable with. Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything."

"I can't lead a mission when the people I'm leading have missions of their owns."

"It's called compartmentalization." Sarah said absentmindedly, looking at her nails. 

"Nobody spills the secrets because nobody knows them all." Nick said to Steve 

"Except you." Sarah retorted, flicking her eyes up to meet nick and then looked back down at her nails. Nick stood up. 

"You're wrong about me. I do share. I'm nice like that." Sarah and Steve followed him onto the elevator "Insight bay."

"Captain Rogers does not have clearance for Project Insight."

"Director override, Fury, Nicholas J."

"Confirmed." The elevator began to move down. Steve looked at Sarah. 

"It didn't say anything about you." 

"Because I have clearance"

"How?"

"I'm a genius, after what they did with cube without consulting me, they realized their mistake and brought me in on this one." Steve was about to say something but stopped and nodded his head. It was silent for a moment. 

"You know, they used to play music." Steve said. 

"Yeah. My grandfather operated one of these things for forty years. My granddad worked in a nice building, he got good tips. He'd walk home every night, roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd say "hi", people would say hi back. Time went on, neighborhood got rougher. He'd say "Hi", they'd say, "Keep on steppin'." Granddad got to grippin' that lunch bag a little tighter."

"Did he ever get mugged?"

"Every week some punk would say, "What's in the bag?" 

"Well, what did he do?"

"He'd show 'em. A bunch of crumpled ones and loaded 0.22 Magnum. Granddad loved people. But he didn't trust them very much." They three of them turned. "Yeah, I know. They're a little bit bigger than a 0.22."

"This is Project Insight. Three next generation Helicarriers synced to a network of targeting satellites." Sarah said. 

"Launched from the Lemurian Star." Steve concluded. 

"Once we get them in the air they never need to come down. Continuous suborbital flight courtesy of our new repulser engines." Nick continued 

"Stark?"

"Well, he had a few suggestions once he got an up close look at our old turbines. These new long range precision guns can eliminate a thousand hostiles a minute. The satellites can read a terrorist's DNA before he steps outside his spider hole. We gonna neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen."

"Wait, what?" Sarah asked. "Before they even happen?"

"I thought the punishment usually came after the crime."

"We can't afford to wait that long." 

"Why didn't you tell me this? I didn't realize that was the plan!" Sarah became angry. 

"After New York, I convinced the World Security Council we needed a quantum surgeon threat analysis. For once we're way ahead of the curve."

"By holding a gun at everyone on Earth and calling it protection." Sarah cried 

"You know, I read those SSR files. Greatest generation? You guys did some nasty stuff." Nick said, attempting to get Steve to understand

"Yeah, we compromised. Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so the people could be free. This isn't freedom, this is fear." 

"SHIELD takes the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be. It's getting damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap." Sarah glared 

"Don't hold your breath." Steve replied. 

Sarah stayed outside and drew while Steve went in the museum. She didn't really like seeing everything from her past? It didn't sit well with her. 

When he and her dad went to go visit Peggy however, Sarah went in to stay hi.

"You should be proud of yourself, Peggy." Steve said. Sarah sat on the edge of her bed, as she always does, legs pulled into her chest, clingy to Spot, the stuffed animal she had given Peggy when she was younger. Peggy looked over and smiled at all of the photos of her husband and family. 

"Mm. I have lived a life. My only regret is that you two didn't get to live yours." She said, smiling at them. Sarah looked at her and smiled sadly while Steve looked off. "What is it?"

"For as long as I can remember I just wanted to do what was right. I guess I'm not quite sure what that is anymore. And I thought I could throw myself back in and follow orders, serve. It's just not the same" Peggy chuckled. 

"You're always so dramatic. Look, you saved the world. We rather...mucked it up." 

"You didn't. Knowing that you helped found SHIELD is half the reason I stay." Peggy looked at Sarah and motioned for her to come over to her. Sarah crawled over to the other side and Peggy hugged her into her side. Sarah felt at home. Peggy then grabbed Steve's hand. 

"The world has changed and none of us can go back. All we can do is our best, and sometimes the best that we can do is to start over." She began to cough. Sarah sat up and Steve got her water. He turned back and Peggy opened her eyes. Sarah recognized the look. 

She had forgotten. 

"Steve?" She said, flabbergasted. "You're alive?"

"Yeah Peggy." She replied, grabbing her hand. Peggy looked over at Sarah. 

"Oh Sarah, you're awake. It's been so long. So long." 

"Yeah. I'm right here. I'm not asleep anymore." Peggy began to cry then Sarah did. Sarah laid in Peggy's chest and Peggy held her close. "I've missed you so much." 

Then they left. 

"The thing is I think it's getting worse. A cop pulled me over last week, he thought I was drunk. I swerved to miss a plastic bag. I thought it was an IED." Sarah could recognize PTSD in anyone, she saw her dad struggle with it everyday. 

"Some stuff you leave there, other stuff you bring back. It's our job to figure out how to carry it. Is it gonna be in a big suitcase or in a little man-purse? It's up to you." Sam comforts. 

"I'll see you next week." The lady says after the meeting ends. 

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She confirmed. She walked away, pamphlet in hand, clearly a first time visitor. 

"Look who it is. The running man." 

"Caught the last few minutes. It's pretty intense." Steve said 

"Yeah, brother, we all got the same problems. Guilt, regret."

"You lose someone?" Sarah asked, once again recognizing a look she had seen on her dad so many times. The look he got anytime somebody mentioned Bucky.

"My wingman, Riley. Fly in the night mission. A standard PJ rescue op, nothing we hadn't done a thousand times before, till RPG knock Riley's dumb ass out of the sky. Nothing I could do. It's like I was up there just to watch." Sam told them.

"I'm sorry." Sarah told him. 

"After that, I had really hard time finding a reason for being over there, you know?"

"But you're happy now, back in the world?" Steve asked. 

"Hey, the number of people giving me orders is down to about zero. So, hell, yeah. You thinking about getting out?"

"No. I don't know. To be honest, I don't know what I would do with myself if I did."

"Ultimate fighting?" All three of them laughed. "It's just a great idea off the top of my head. But seriously, you could do whatever you want to do. What makes you happy?"

"Honestly, other than this girl right next to me." He looked at Sarah, pulled her close, and then looked back at Sam. "I don't know."

The ride to their D.C. apartment was silent. Sarah sat on the back of the motorcycle and said nothing. It was nice to just kinda be there with no noise. She followed her dad up the stairs. 

"That's so sweet. That is so nice. Hey. I gotta go, though. Okay, bye." She turned to Steve and Sarah. "My aunt, she's kind of an insomniac." She turned away to walk down to the laundry room. 

"Hey, if you want...if you want, you're welcome to use my machine. Might be cheaper than the one in the basement." Sarah laughed at her dad, clearly attempting to be nice however sounding as if he was very awfully flirting. 

"Oh, yeah? What's it cost?" She asked, getting the wrong impression. Sarah looked at the agent, although currently she was acting as a nurse. 

"A cup of coffee?" He said. 

"Thank you, but um...I already have a load in downstairs, and, uh...you really don't want my scrubs in your machine. I just finished a round in the infectious diseases ward, so." 

"Ah, well, I'll keep my distance." That's when Sarah heard the music coming from their apartment. 

"Well hopefully not too far." She smiled and Steve smiled back. "Oh, and I think you left your stereo on. "

"Oh. Right, thank you." Steve said, smiling a fake smile. 

"Yeah." She smiled and walked down the stairs. Steve turned to Sarah. 

"Stay here." He ordered, walking down the stairs. 

"Yeah, no friggin way." She replied quietly, following him, which he didn't know. She walked up the fire escape behind him and as he was about to open the window she flicked her hands and it opened silently. Steve looked back and glared at her but said nothing. He walked in and Sarah followed. He grabbed his shield from its spot in the hallway and peaked around the corner to see Nick Fury sitting in Sarah's arm chair, the one she sits in at midnight and study's notes while 50's music plays on record in the background. 

Sarah looked at him and could sense something was off. He was in pain. 

And he was bleeding in her chair

"I don't remember giving you a key."

Sarah didn't care about that, Sarah was still confused why he was bleeding and steaming over the fact that not only was he bleeding but he was doing it in her arm chair. 

"You really think I'd need one?" Fury laughed. There was a moment of pause. 

"My wife kicked me out."

"Didn't know you were married."

"There are a lot of things you don't about me." 

"I know, Nick. That's the problem." Sarah's dad flipped the light switch and saw what Sarah already knew. Nick indicated for the two of them to be quiet, shut off the light, and then showed them a message. 

'Ears everywhere'

"I'm sorry to have do this, but I had no place else to crash." 

'SHIELD compromised'

"Who else knows about your wife?" Sarah asked, catching on 

'Us three'

"Just" he paused to stand up. "My friends."

"Is that what we are?" Steve said, moving away from behind the wall. 

"That's up to you." Then, suddenly, three shots happened. Sarah raised her shield on her and Nick but she didn't make it in time. Nick fell with a hard thud, three holes in his chest. Sarah sat next to him and began assessing his wounds. The door broke open. 

"Captain Rogers?" It was the agents voice. She turned the corner and began searching through rooms. "Captain, I'm Agent 13 of SHIELD's special service."

"Kate?"

"I've been assigned to protect you." She said. 

"On whose order?" Steve asked. The agent finally turned the corner and looked down. 

"His." She grabbed her radio and contacted someone from SHIELD "Foxtrot is down, he's barley responsive. I need EMTs."

"Do you have a twenty on the shooter?" He asked. Sarah noticed her dad look up through the window. 

"Tell them I'm in pursuit." He said, taking off. Sarah thought about chasing after him but she knew she had to be here. She looked over the wounds. 

"Agent, you have a first aid kit?" 

"Yes."

"Get it." She said. The woman took off into her apartment. Sarah waited a moment. 

"Nick?" She whispered "What's the plan?" 

He didn't answer her question, but a flash drive dropped out of his hand and he whispered quietly. 

"Don't. Trust. Anyone." Then he was out. 

Sarah rode with her dad to the hospital and sat in the observation room with him, waiting. Natasha barged in not five minutes after they arrived. 

"Is he gonna make it?" She asked, staring at he picture ahead. 

"We don't know but it didn't look good." Sarah told her. Natasha looked at Steve 

"Tell me about the shooter." 

"He's fast and strong. He had a metal arm" Maria joined them in the room 

"Ballistics?" 

"Three slugs. No rifling and completely untraceable." Maria told her. 

"Soviet made?" Natasha asked. 

"Yeah." Then the beep. Sarah looked over and saw the doctors scrambling but something was off, Nick wasn't dying. Sarah could feel it, Nick wasn't dead. 

"He's dropping."

"Crash cart coming in."

"Nurse, help me with the gauzes, please. BP is dropping. Charge to one hundred."

"Don't do this to me, Nick." Natasha begged. 

"Stand back! Three, two, one. Clear!" He was given a shock but nothing was happening. Sarah still didn't know what was going on. "Pulse?"

"No pulse."

Then Sarah stopped listening to all the noise and began listening to Nicks mind. He wasn't saying anything but he wasn't dead. 

Standing the the room with Nick's 'corpse' Sarah said nothing. She knew Nick wasn't dead and she figured that they lied about it because it was important but what she couldn't figure out was how they fooled everyone.

"We need to take him." Hill wasn't sad. She was fine. She was clearly okay. 

What the hell was going on? 

Sarah didn't get why they were faking his death and she didn't know why he had been shot at and she didn't know what people were doing. Why wasn't she being consulted? She was a genius, she could be valuable? Why is it no one valued her opinion in matters like this? 

She stood there until Natasha left and Steve chased after her. Sarah followed the two. 

"Natasha!" He said, touching her arm. She turned to him. 

"Why was Fury in your apartment?" She asked. Steve looked at her for a moment and Sarah sat in the back, standing against a wall. 

"I don't know." He answered finally. Rumlow walked up to them. Sarah clutched the flash drive in her pocket a bit tighter. 

"Captain, they want you back at SHIELD. Sarah too." 

"Yeah, give me a second."

"They want you now." 

"Okay." Steve turned back to Natasha. 

"You're a terrible liar."

"STRIKE team escort Captain Rogers and Barnes back to SHIELD immediately." They stared to walk away. Sarah looked and walked forward, then saw the vending machine. She thought for a moment and the thinking of no better options, she placed the drive in there by manipulating the vending machine clerk. She walked away. 

"For whatever it's worth, you did your best." Sarah didn't know who this was and why he was talking to the undercover agent assigned to her and her dad in Nick's office but she didn't like him. He was suspicious. 

"Thank you, sir." Agent 13, or Sharon as Sarah had recently learned her real name was, shook the mans hand and turned." Captain Rogers."

"Neighbor." Steve said coldly. 

"Ah, Captain, Ms. Barnes. I'm Alexander Pierce." Sarah had decided to go by Barnes a long time ago, to honor her father. Steve had agreed with the choice.

Sir, it's an honor." They shook hands. He turned to Sarah. 

"Sir." She said respectively 

"The honor is mine, Captain. My father served in the 101st. Come on in." 

They followed Pierce. Steve sat in a chair and Sarah stood behind it. Alexander showed them a photo of Nick. 

"When was this?" Sarah asked. She noticed how young the two looked. 

"That photo was taken five years after Nick and I met. When I was at State Department in Bogota. ELN rebels took the embassy, and security got me out, but the rebels took hostages. Nick was deputy chief for the SHIELD station there. And he comes to me with a plan. He wants to storm the building through the sewers. I said, "No, we'll negotiate." Turned out the ELN didn't negotiate, so they put out a kill order. They stormed the basement, and what did they find? They find it empty. Nick had ignored my direct order and carried out an unauthorized military operation on foreign soil. He saved the lives of a dozen political officers, including my daughter."

"So you gave him a promotion." Steve said, handing the photo back. 

"I've never had any cause to regret it." Pierce set the photo up and looked at Steve. "Captain, why was Nick in your apartment last night?"

"I don't know." Steve was being honest, he had no clue. Sarah however, she had known the whole time. Pierce seemed to guess this because he looked away from Steve and up at Sarah, though Steve didn't seem to notice. 

"You know it was bugged?" He was looking straight at Sarah. 

"I did, because Nick told me."

"Did he tell you he was the one who bugged it?" Steve didn't answer because he didn't know but Pierce was still looking at Sarah, who was unsurprised. "I want you to see something." He brings up SHIELD interrogation footage. 

"Who hired you, Batroc?"

"Is that live?"

"Yeah, they picked him up last night in a not-so-safe house in Algiers."

"Are you saying he's a suspect? Assassination isn't Batroc's line." Sarah said, eyeing Pierce. 

"No, it's more complicated than that. Batroc was hired anonymously to attack the Lemurian Star and he was contacted by e-mail and paid by wire transfer. And then the money was run through seventeen fictitious accounts, the last one going to a holding company that was registered to a Jacob Veech."

"Am I supposed to know who that is?" Pierce handed the file to Steve. Steve looked at it for a moment before handing it to Sarah. 

"Not likely. Veech died six years ago. His last address was 1435 Elmhurst Drive. When I first met Nick his mother lived at 1437."

"Are you saying Fury hired the pirates? Why?"

"Well the prevailing theory was that the hijacking was a cover for the acquisition and sale of classified intelligence. The sale went sour and that led to Nick's death."

"If you really knew Nick Fury you know that's not true." Sarah said. 

"Why do you think we're talking? See, I took a seat on the Council not because I wanted to but because Nick asked me to, because we were both realists. We knew that despite all the diplomacy and the handshaking and the rhetoric, that to build a really better world sometimes means having to tear the old one down. And that makes enemies. Those people that call you dirty because you got the guts to stick your hands in the mud and try to build something better. And the idea that those people could be happy today, makes me really, really angry." Pierce looked at Sarah then 

"Ms. Barnes, you were the last one to see Nick alive. I don't think that's an accident, and I don't think you do either. So I'm gonna ask again, why was he there?"

"He told me not to trust anyone." She said, looking Pierce in the eyes. 

"I wonder if that included him." He said. Sarah sat for a moment. 

"I'm sorry. Those were his last words." She said. She looked at her dad. 

"If you'll excuse us." He said, standing his up, grabbing his shield, and making his way to the door. 

"Captain." Steve turned and Sarah did them same but was tempted to not even stop. "Somebody murdered my friend and I'm gonna find out why. Anyone gets in my way, they're gonna regret it. Anyone." 

"Understood." Steve replied. Sarah followed him onto the elevator "Operations control."

"Confirmed." The computer said. Sarah looked as Brock Rumlow and two STRIKE agent entered the elevator. She looked at her dad and he looked back. 

"Forensics." Rumlow said. 

"Confirmed."

"Cap. Sarah"

"Rumlow." 

"Evidence response found some fibers on the roof they want us to see. You want me to get the tac-team ready?"

"No, lets wait and see what it is first."

"Right." Sarah and Steve both notice one of the agents touching his gun suspiciously and a few are sweating. The elevator stops and more STRIKE get on. 

"Administrations level."

"Confirmed."

"Um...sorry about what happened with Fury. Messed up what happened to him." 

"Thank you." Sarah and Steve both know something is off. More agents enter the elevator. 

"Records."

"Confirmed." The two realize they are surrounded. Steve looked at Sarah and she nodded her head. 

"Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?" Steve asked. There was a moment's pause before suddenly one of the agents turned and used an electric rod to give Steve a shock, the others grab him and try to strap his wrists with magnetic cuffs and a few grab Sarah. Steve managed to knock some of them down but one cuff remains. Sarah pulls her cuffs of the wall and attaches them together then uses her powers to disintegrate them. She sees someone coming after her and doges there stick and then forces him to shock himself. Rumlow uses his rod to give Steve a shock. Steve managed free himself from the magnetic cuff. He turned to Rumlow. Sarah knocks down the last agent and she turns to him to. 

"Woh, you two. I just want you to know, Cap, Barnes, this ain't personal." Rumlow then went to attack Steve with his electric rod but Steve manages to defend himself and eventually knocks Rumlow out. 

"It kind of feels personal." Steve picked up his shield then opened the elevator doors, but they were faced by a team of STRIKE agents pointing their weapons at them. 

"Drop the shield! Put your hands in the air!" Sarah looked at her dad and knew what to do. She threw her shield up and fell to the ground. Steve used his shield to break off the elevator wires which sent the elevator down. As he forces the doors open he sees more STRIKE agents approaching him, he closed the door and looked for a way out. 

"Give it up, Rogers! Get that door open! You have nowhere to go!" 

"Okay, I have a plan but you're gonna have to jump through glass." Sarah said. Steve understanding what she meant, broke through the glass in the elevator and plummeted down to finally hit the ground floor. Sarah flew down and landed smoothly. 

"Let's go." Steve said. She followed behind him and ran to their cycle. She sat on the back. The flew through the closing gate and saw the Quinjet. 

"Stand down, Captain Rogers. Stand down." The two continued driving. The Quinjet lowered a machine gun. "Repeat, stand down." They don't stop so they start shooting at him. Steve threw his shield into the propellers to jam it, giving Sarah the opportunity to jump on it. She pulled Steve's shield out of the propeller and jumped off, then threw the plane to the side. She landed on the back of the cycle and returned the shield to its rightful spot. 

"We have to go back go back to the hospital!" Sarah told Steve. 

"What?! Why?"

"Dad, please trust me!" She said. He sighed. 

"Fine but first we have to change. We look to recognizable." 

When they got to the hospital Sarah ran to the vending machine. She looked in horror as it was gone but she saw Natasha standing behind her, chewing gum. Sarah angrily used her powers to force Natasha into an empty room. She followed behind and after Steve was in there she used her powers to shut the door behind her. 

"Where is it!" Sarah demanded 

"Safe." Natasha popped a bubble and blew another one. Sarah popped it with a scalpel she wasn't touching. 

"Do better!" 

"You won't hurt me Sarah." Natasha said calmly. 

"Natasha, I was told not to trust anyone and you're included and if you don't hand that flash drive over I will be forced to hurt you." 

For the first time, Sarah's eyes turned a terrifying shade of red. 

"Where did you get it?" Natasha asked. 

"Why would she tell you?" Steve said, moving forward, but Natasha was still looking at Sarah. 

"Fury gave it to you. Why?" 

"What's on it?" Steve asked 

"I don't know." 

"Stop lying!" Sarah screamed. 

"I only act like I know everything, Barnes!"

"I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?" Steve asked. 

"Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you." 

"I'm not gonna ask you again." Sarah threatened. 

"I know who killed Fury." Sarah let the knife fall back onto the the tray. 

"What?"

"Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists, the ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years."

"So he's a ghost story."

"Five years ago I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, somebody shot at my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff, I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me." She pulled up her shirt to show them the bullet wound on the side of her stomach "A Soviet slag, no rifling. Bye-bye bikinis."

"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now" Steve said. There's was a hint of a smile from Natasha

"Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried" Natasha held up the flash drive" Like you said, he's a ghost story" Sarah took the flash drive from her. 

"Well, let's find out what the ghost wants." Steve said. 

Sarah had a laptop on her at all times, one she encrypted to be untraceable. She had sat in the park across the street from the mall, awaiting the file from Natasha. When she saw the cars pull up she put her head down but watched as they infiltrated the building. The file uploaded to her computer. 

"Guys. We have company." Sarah said. 

"Okay. We're coming." Steve said. Sarah closed the computer and stood up. She walked calmly to the parking garage to see her dad speeding in a truck. He stopped just long enough for her to get in. She hopped in the back seat and he sped off. 

"Where'd this come from?" Sarah asked. 

"I found it in the parking lot."

"Found it. Sure. Just tell me, where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?"

"Nazi Germany." 

"Mm."

"And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash." Natasha took her feet off the dash. 

"Alright, I have a question for you, of which you do not have to answer. I feel like if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know?"

"What?"

"Was that your first kiss since 1945?"

"Was what your first kiss since 1945?" Sarah asked. 

"That bad, huh?"

"I didn't say that." 

"Did you two kiss?"

"Well, it kind of sounds like that's what you're saying."

"No, I didn't. I just wondered how much practice you had."

"I don't need practice."

"Everybody needs practice."

"It was not my first kiss since 1945. I'm ninety-five, I'm not dead."

Lie. He hadn't kissed anyone since Bucky died. Sarah knew that but she didn't say anything. 

"Nobody special, though?" Natasha asked. Sarah huffed and curled up in the back. 

"Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience. I found the love of my life in 1945 and he's dead now. It's pretty hard to find someone as perfect as him." 

Sarah smiled at the memory of her fathers together, happy. 

"Well, that's alright, you just make something up." Natasha said. 

"What, like you?"

"I don't know. The truth is a matter of circumstances, it's not all things to all people all the time. And neither am I." 

"That's a tough way to live."

"It's a good way not to die, though."

She wasn't necessarily wrong, in fact that sounds exactly like something Sarah would say. 

"You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is."

"Yeah. Who do you want me to be?"

"How about a friend?" Natasha laughed softly. 

"Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers."

The car ride the rest of the way was silent. Sarah had fallen asleep and when she woke up, she recognized exactly where she was. 

"This is it?" Steve asked, getting out of the truck. Sarah and Natasha followed. 

"The file came from these coordinates."

"So did I." Steve said, looking around. Sarah smiled at the memories she could think of from here. "This camp is where I was trained."

"Changed much?" 

"A little." Sarah sees what Steve is thinking. She smiles, looking at the dad she had originally fallen in love with, the one she knew when she was young. 

"Pick up the pace, ladies! Let's go! Let's go! Double time! Come on Rogers, move it." She sees the smaller Steve stop and look at the older one then begin to move. He stops in front of Sarah. She was currently taller at the age of 14 then Steve was in his twenties. He smiled at her with admiration and it was clear he knew exactly who she was. "Come on! Fall in! Rogers! I said fall in!" The two watch as the former Steve runs off 

"This is a dead end. Zero heat signature, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off." Steve and Sarah both notice the building at the same time. Steve walks towards it. "What is it?"

"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards from the barracks. This building is in the wrong place." Steve opened the lock with his shield and they walked inside. Sarah turned on the lights they realized where they were. 

"This is SHIELD." Natasha seemed shocked. 

"Maybe where it started." Steve said. They entered a room where they find old framed portraits of Howard Stark, Peggy and Col. Chester Phillips. 

"There's Stark's father." Natasha said. 

"My father." Sarah told her. Natasha nodded her head. "Howard."

"Who's the girl" Neither Steve nor Sarah told her. Sarah stared at the photo while Steve walked away. He stopped in front of a bookshelf and stared for a moment. 

"If you already working in a secret office..." He pushed the bookshelf and slid it open to reveal an elevator behind it. "Why do you need to hide the elevator?" They ride down the elevator which took them to a room with old computers. 

"This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient." Natasha said. Then Sarah noticed a small flash drive port. She placed the flash drive in it which then activated the computers. The room lit up. 

"What the hell?" Sarah asked. 

"Initiate system?" Natasha looked down and then realized she had to type the answer. 

"Y-E-S, spells yes." The computers began to start up. "Shall we play a game?" She smiled and then looked at Steve and Sarah who were unamused "It's from a movie that..."

"Yeah, we saw it." Steve commented.   
"Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Rogers-Barnes, Sarah. Born 1937. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984."

"It's some kind of a recording." Natasha said but Sarah knew better than that. Sarah knew exactly who this was. 

"I am not a recording, Fräulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am." The photo of Zola appeared on the screen. 

"Do you know this thing?"

"Arnim Zola" Sarah started. 

"He was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." 

"First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972 I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body, my mind, however, that was worth saving on two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain." Zola said. 

"How did you get here?" Steve asked. 

"Invited." Zola answers. 

"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic values." Sarah told him. 

"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own." Zola told him. 

"HYDRA died with the Red Skull." Sarah said this mostly as a hope. 

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." 

"Prove it." Steve ordered. 

"Accessing archive." The computer screen showed them old footage of Johann Schmidt and then SHIELD members "HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For seventy years HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed."

"That's impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you." Natasha said. 

"Accidents will happen." The computer screen showed them Howard and Maria Stark's car accident, insinuating that HYDRA killed them along with the recent death of Fury. "HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum." In anger Steve suddenly smashed the computer screen with his fist. Zola appeared on another screen. "As I was saying... "

"What's on this drive?"

"Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm." 

"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" 

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." Suddenly the doors start to close. Steve tried stops it by throwing his shield in between it but he's too late. Sarah attempted to open them but something was blocking her.

"Steve we got a bogey. High powered missile, heading this way."

"Who fired it."

"SHIELD."

"I'm afraid I having been stalling captain. Admit it, it's better this way. We're both of us...out of time." Steve noticed a small opening on the ground. He threw the metal door aside and just as the place exploded he throws himself, Natasha, and Sarah into the hole and protected them with his shield. Sarah used her powers to protect herself and, as best she could, Steve and Natasha. The three of them got out from under the building rubble just as STRIKE agents arrive to roam the area for them. 

The drive to wherever they were going was long. 

Steve knocked on the window of some house Sarah didn't recognize. Sam came to open it. 

"Hey, man." 

"I'm sorry about this. We need a place to lay low." Steve said. 

"Everyone we know is trying to kill us." Natasha finished. He looked at Sarah and she smiled. 

"Not everyone." Sam let them shower and he washed their clothes. Steve got out of the bathroom to see Sarah lying on the bed, sleeping. Natasha was drying her hair. 

"You okay?" He asked Natasha. 

"Yeah." 

"What's going on?" 

"When I first joined SHIELD, I thought it was going straight. But I guess I just traded in the KGB for HYDRA. I thought I knew whose lies I was telling, but...I guess I can't tell the difference anymore."

"There's a chance you might be in the wrong business." Natasha smiled faintly

"I owe you."

"It's okay."

"If it was the other way around, and it was down to me to save your life or Sarah's, and you be honest with me, would you trust me to do it?"

"I would now. And I'm always honest." Steve smiled. 

"Well, you seem pretty chipper for someone who just found out they died for nothing."

"Well, I guess I just like to know who I'm fighting." Sam walked into the room. 

"I made breakfast. If you guys...eat that sort of thing." Natasha stood up and followed. Steve walked over to Sarah and shook her lightly. 

"Sarah, baby, it's time to get up." He said. He kissed her on the forehead. She sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes. She followed her dad into the kitchen where Natasha was already talking. 

"So, the question is: who in SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike?" She asked. 

"Pierce." Sarah said, walking in and picking up a piece of toast. 

"Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world."

"But he's not working alone, Zola's algorithm was on the Lemurian Star." Steve said. 

"So was Jasper Sitwell." Sarah replied. 

"So, the real question is: how do the two most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?" Steve said. 

"The answer is: you don't." Sam dropped a file in front of Steve

"What's this?" Steve asked 

"Call it a resume." Natasha picked up a photo of Sam with his para-rescue team. 

"Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil mission, that was you." She turned to Steve. "You didn't say he was a para-rescue." Steve looked at the photo. 

"Is this Riley?" Sarah asked from behind her dad. 

"Yeah."

"I heard they couldn't bring in the choppers because of the RPGs. What did you use, a stealth chute?" Natasha asked 

"No. These." He threw a file on the table. Sarah picked it up and read it. She looked it over and then showed Steve. 

"I thought you said you're a pilot." He said. 

"I never said a pilot." Sam smirked. 

"I can't ask you to do this, Sam. You got out for a good reason."

"Dude, Captain America needs my help. There's no better reason to get back in." 

Steve sits in thought for a moment. 

"Where can we get our hands on one of these things?" 

"The last one is at Fort Meade, behind three guarded gates and a twelve-inch steel wall." Sam said. Sarah laughed. Natasha looks at Steve and shrugs her shoulders. 

"Shouldn't be a problem."

"Tell me about Zola's algorithm." Sarah ordered, eyes red, walking towards Sitwell slowly. 

"Never heard of it." Sitwell said, backing up. 

"What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?" Sarah asked. 

"I was throwing up, I get seasick." Sitwell responded jokingly. Steve forced Sitwell to the edge of the rooftop, Sitwell just smiles. 

"Is this little charade supposed to imply you're gonna throw me from this roof because that's really not your style Rogers." Sitwell laughed. 

"You're right. It's not. It's hers." Steve stepped aside and Natasha kicked Sitwell off the roof. He plummeted down, screaming. 

"Oh, wait. What about that guy from accounting, Rodney...?" She asked. 

"Reed. Lip piercing, right?"

"Yeah, he's cute." Sarah confirmed. 

"Yeah, I'm not ready for that." Suddenly, Sam, in his Falcon jet-pack suit, flew up holding Sitwell and threw him down on the roof. Steve and Natasha walked towards Sitwell while he held his hand up in fear. Sarah walked up behind them, passed in between them, and looked down at Sitwell. 

"Talk."

"Zola's algorithm is a program...for choosing Insight's targets!" He was shaking. 

"What targets?"

"You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa city. Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future."

"The Future? How could it know?" Steve asked. Sarah glared at him then turned back as Sitwell laughed. 

"How could it not? The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it." Steve and Natasha looked at him in confusion. Sarah just looked angry. "Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e-mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores. Zola's algorithm evaluates peoples' past to predict their future."

"And what then?" Steve asked. 

"Oh, my God. Pierce is gonna kill me."

"What then?!" Sarah yelled. 

"Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few millions at a time."

Sam was in the drivers seat, Natasha in the passengers seat. Sarah was in the middle back, lying on her dad. Sitwell sat next to her. 

"HYDRA doesn't like leaks."

"So why don't you try sticking a cork in it." Sam said. Sarah laughed. 

"Insight's launching in sixteen hours, we're cutting it a little bit close here."

"I know. We'll use him to bypass the DNA scans and access the Helicarriers directly." Steve said. Sarah knew that was a bad idea but she kept her mouth shut. 

"What?! Are you crazy? That is a terrible, terrible idea." 

Suddenly the Winter Soldier landed on the car roof, pulled Sitwell out through the window and threw him into oncoming traffic. He started shooting at them until Steve pulled the break handle, causing the Winter Soldier drop down onto the street. Another car smashed into their car and pushed them along the road. The Soldier jumped back onto their car, smashed through the windshield and pulled out the steering wheel. 

"Shit!" Sam yelled. Natasha started shooting at him but the Winter Soldier jumped onto the vehicle behind them, as the car was being pulled off the road. Steve held on to the car door. Sarah attempted to stop the car. 

"Hang on!" Steve broke off the door, holding onto Natasha and Sam. They slid on the car door through the street. Sarah jumped out of the sun roof and landed feet first, smoothly on the ground. HYDRA agents started shooting at them. The four of them scattered and ran off in different directions. Sarah jumped off the bridge and landed. She looked around. 

Sarah threw her hands up and her shield was on. She looked over at her dad and the guy shooting at him. She moved his gun and he shot himself in the leg. Sarah smirked. She saw the Winter soldier land in front of her. She thought about fighting him but he ran the opposite direction. She ran to find her father.

She moved civilians out of the way. She saw the little girl in the line of fire. 

"Hi sweetie. Come here, let's go find your mommy and daddy." Sarah said. The little girl ran over to her and Sarah picked her up. Sarah ran her over to the side. 

"Mommy!" The girl yelled. Sarah set her down and she ran over to her mom. 

"Ellen! Oh thank god." The mom looked over at Sarah. "Thank you." 

Sarah nodded her head and flew up to find her dad. When she saw him she landed by him. She watched him throw the Winter soldier. He rolled and stood up. 

"Oh my god, dad." Sarah murmured. 

"Bucky?" Steve asked. 

"Who the hell is Bucky?" He raised his gun. Sam kicked him over. He stood up again. He raised his gun as Steve head. Sarah forced the gun down but Bucky resisted. 

A grenade was fired at him. 

"Dad no!" Sarah screamed but when the smoke cleared Bucky was gone. Sarah didn't know what to do but when the gun was pointed at her head she fell to the ground with no arguments. 

She was sitting in the car when Maria Hill emerged. Sarah sat for a moment before making her handcuffs disappear. The five of them went through the hole on the bottom and followed Maria to a building. 

"GSW. She's lost at least a pint." Maria yelled 

"Maybe two." Sam continued 

"Let me take her!" The doctor replied. 

"She'll wants to see him first." Hill took the four of them to see Fury, alive and lying in bed. Steve and Natasha look surprised. Sam looks indifferent. Sarah looked vindicated. She had known all along. 

"About damn time." 

"I knew it!" Sarah yelled. Everyone stared at her for a moment. 

The doctor began treating Natasha's gun shot while they discussed Nick's injuries. 

"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache."

"Don't forget your collapsed lung." The doctor intervened. 

"Oh, let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good."

"They cut you open, your heart stopped." Natasha said. 

"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it."

"Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?" Steve said. 

"Any attempt on the director's life had to look successful." Maria said. 

"Can't kill you if you're already dead. Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust." Nick replied. 

An hour later, after struggling to get Nick out of his bed, everyone sat gathered around a table. There were many photos and plans scattered on the table top. Nick was holding a photo of Alexander Pierce in his hand. 

"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said, "Peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility." See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues." 

"We have to stop the launch." Natasha said, setting a file down. Sarah sat on the table, looking over everything. 

"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore." Fury sat for a moment before opening a case containing three chips. 

"What's that?" Sam asked. Sarah turned towards it. 

"The fail safe." Sarah looked at the chips, remembering the plan that had been set into place incase anything happened. 

"Still lost." Sam continued 

"Once the Helicarriers reach three thousand feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites becoming fully weaponized." Maria explained. 

"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own." Nick continued. 

"One or two won't cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational a whole lot of people are gonna die." 

"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA. We need to get pass them, insert the server blades, and maybe, just maybe, we can salvage what's left..." 

"We're not salvaging anything." Steve interrupted. "We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick, we're taking down SHIELD."

"SHIELD had nothing to do with it."

"You gave me this mission, this is how it ends. SHIELD's been compromised, you've said so yourself. HYDRA was right under your nose and nobody noticed."

"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave? I noticed."

"And how many paid the price before you did?"

"Look, I didn't know about Barnes."

"Even if you did, would you have told us? Or would you have compartmentalized that too?" Sarah said angrily 

"SHIELD, HYDRA, it all goes." Steve finished. 

"He's right." Maria agreed. Fury looked at Natasha then Sam. 

"Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower." Sam argued. 

"Well... Looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."

"Damn right." Sarah murmured.

Sarah sat on the edge of the bridge, he dad standing behind her. She could see the memory in his head. She had always wondered where that phrase came from, til the end of the line, her dads had been saying it to each other and her Sarah's whole life. 

She was thinking about her first birthday without them. 

She remembered how badly it hurt. She remembered how Howard and Maria tried so hard to make it a good birthday but they didn't know her traditions. They didn't know about her red white and blue cake, or her day in the park, or the fireworks and she didn't tell them. She spent the day alone in her room and they brought her cake, vanilla with white and blue frosting but no red, and they sang, and they sat with her as she cried. 

Now she had both her dads back and yet they both felt further away then they had when they were dead. 

"He's gonna be there, you know?" Sarah had heard Sam walk up but she had chosen to ignore it. 

"I know." Steve said. Sarah sat quietly, looking out at the water.

"Look, whoever he used to be, the guy he is now, I don't think he's the kind you save. He's the kind you stop."

"I don't know if I can do that." 

"Well, he might not give you a choice. He doesn't know you." 

"He will." He paused for a moment. "Gear up, it's time."

Steve began to walk away. Sarah turned and hopped of the ledge and then began to follow her dad. 

"You gonna wear that?"

"No. If you're gonna fight a war, you gotta wear a uniform." Steve smirked. Sarah smiled, knowing exactly what he was thinking. 

"So what are you gonna wear?" Steve asked. Sarah smiled. 

"Something blue." 

She was sure the guard was surprised when both Steve and Bucky's uniforms were gone. Bucky's clothes were only slightly too big, she was always kinda tall and muscular for her age and the serum didn't help. 

Steve smiled at her, standing in her dads uniform, and she smiled back. 

She followed her dad into the building and then to the control room. He stood in front of the microphone for a second before he decided what to say. 

"Attention, all SHIELD agents. This is Steve Rogers. You've heard a lot about me over the last few days, some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it's time you know the truth. SHIELD is not what we thought it was, it's been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader. The STRIKE and Insight crew are HYDRA as well. I don't know how many more, but I know they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want: absolute control. They shot the Nick Fury and it won't end there. If you launch those Helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way, unless we stop them. I know I'm asking a lot, but the price of freedom is high, it always has been, and it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not."

Sarah's smile brightened. 

"Did you write that down first, or was it off the top of your head?" Sam asked. Sarah laughed. The three of them left the room and ran down the to insight bag

"They're initiating launch." Maria called over the coms. Sarah, Sam, and Steve ran out on to the launch area. 

"Hey, Cap, how do we know the good guys from the bad guys?" Sam asked. Sarah looked over at him and laughed. 

"If they're shooting at you, they're bad." Steve answered. Sarah ran off to the left. She hid for a second before one of the agents walked by she warped his mind and he began fighting for them. She had attempted to do the same for the next one but they saw her. She sighed and punched him in the face. He looked at her angrily and pointed his gun at her. He shot and she flipped over it. 

"Hey, Cap, I found those bad guys you were talking about." Sam called over the coms. 

"You okay?" Steve called. 

"Not dead yet." Sarah threw her hands up and brought them down and everyone fell. She smirked and then launched herself on the platform of one ship. Her dad met her. 

"You got this?" He asked her. 

"Why do you doubt me?" She responded. Steve smiled. He punched someone running at them. Sarah ran in and jumped onto the hallway platform. She switched the aiming chip. 

"One down!" Sarah yelled. She joined her dad back on the deck. 

"Falcon, status?" Maria called. 

"Engaging. Alright, Cap, I'm in."

"Eight minutes, Cap." Maria said. 

"Working on it." Steve assured. 

"Falcon, where are you now?" Maria asked

"I had to take a detour!" Sam flew into the bay and switched the chips. "Bravo secure." 

"Two down, one to go." Sarah threw the last agent off the bridge. They stood before Sarah saw the missile launcher and the man carrying it. 

"Six minutes."

"Hey, Sam, I'm gonna need a ride."

"Roger that! Let me know when you're ready." Sarah nodded her head and Steve jumped off, Sarah following. 

"I just did!" Steve claimed. Sam flew up and caught him. Sarah landed on the helicarrier right before Sam put Steve down. 

"You know, you're a lot heavier than you look." Sam breathed heavily 

"I had a big breakfast." Out of no where, Sarah saw Bucky throw Steve off the side. 

"Steve!" Sam went to help Steve but Bucky grabbed one of his wings and threw him back. Sam started shooting at Bucky as he goes to fly off but Bucky used his weapon to rip off one of Sam's wings and kicks him off the Helicarrier. Sam managed to get his parachute out and lands on the roof of the Triskelion. "Cap? Cap, come in. Are you okay?" Steve is holding onto the side of the Helicarrier. 

"Yeah, I'm here! I'm still on the Helicarrier." Sarah helped pull him up "Where are you?"

"I'm grounded, the suit's down. Sorry, Cap."

"Don't worry Sam." Steve looked over at Sarah. "We got it" Sarah ran in behind her dad. She lifted herself onto the platform and then watched her dad jump up onto the bar. She grabbed his hand and pulled him into solid ground. They looked at each other before hearing the metal clang. They looked over to see Bucky, standing in their way. 

"People are gonna die, Buck. We can't let that happen." Steve said. Bucky stared at him coldly. 

"Please, don't make us do this dad. Please." Sarah knew Bucky wouldn't back down. Steve knew it too. Steve threw his shield and then ran at him and punched him. Bucky kicked and Steve caught his leg and twisted it. Bucky got free and Steve went to punch Bucky again but Bucky dodged it. Sarah took the opportunity to pull out the targeting chip but when Bucky saw it he jumped over Steve. Sarah looked at him. 

"Please don't." She pleaded. Nothing. He looked as cold as ever. He made he grab her hand and she grabbed his hand instead. She flipped him. He landed on his feet and kicked her arm. She dropped the chip. Steve jumped after it. But Bucky grabbed it. If it wasn't in Bucky's hand Sarah could have gotten it but his grip was too tight. Steve wrapped himself around Bucky and held his arm. 

"Drop it! Drop it!" Bucky continued to hold the chip. Steve broke one of Bucky's arms and Bucky cried out. Sarah watched in horror as Steve held on to his throat until he passed out and let go of the chip. Steve grabbed the chip and rushes off. Sarah lifted him onto the platform. Steve grabbed her shoulder and then he ran forward to replace the chip. A shot rang out. Sarah looked over at Bucky holding his gun. Steve faltered but then ran again and Bucky shot. 

"Stop!" She screamed. Steve continued and Bucky shot again. Sarah threw the gun out of Bucky's hand and he looked shocked at her. Maybe he didn't know how she did it without touching him or maybe he was surprised she could do it from so far away. Steve locked the chip in while Bucky was Staring at her. 

"Okay, Cap, get out of there." Maria called. 

"Fire now." Steve ordered. 

"But, Steve..." Maria argued. 

"Do it! Do it now!" Reluctantly Hill made the Helicarriers open fire on each other. Steve looked at Bucky below him. Steve fell as the platform did. 

"Sarah get out of here."

"Not happening. Not unless you come with me."

"Sarah. Leave."

"No! Not without you." Steve knew there was no way he could make her leave and the fact that she had said those exact words, he didn't want her too. He didn't want his daughter to die but if she was going to then she was going to do it with her family. Steve looked over at Bucky 

"You know us" Steve told him. Bucky became enraged and lunged at Steve. 

"No, I don't!" 

"Buck, you've known me your whole life." Bucky hit Steve but Steve choose not to fight back. 

"No, I haven't!" 

"Your name is James Buchanan Barnes." Bucky hit Steve again. Sarah said nothing. She knew she had to do something but she didn't know what. She wasn't going to fight her father anymore. 

"Shut up!" Bucky sounded so frightened Steve took off his mask and dropped his shield. The both fell out of the Helicarrier. 

"I'm not gonna fight you. You're my friend." Bucky pushed Steve to the ground. 

"You're my mission." He then mercilessly punches Steve in the face. Sarah approached them slowly "You're my mission!" 

"Then finish it." Bucky hesitated holding his fist up. "Cause I'm with you to the end of the line." Sarah showed Bucky memories. The one where they found Sarah. The one where Sarah was chanting on Bucky's shoulders. The one where they were reunited. The one where Steve held Sarah as she cried because she learned her dad was never coming home. 

"Til the end of the line." After Bucky got his orders.

"Til the end of the line." After Steve found Bucky. 

"Til the end of the line." Steve talking at Bucky's funeral. 

"Til the end of the line." Sarah's small hand on the screen talking to Steve.  

Bucky looked at Steve, starting to remember everything. Then the bottom of the Helicarrier fell, sending Steve down into the river below as Bucky watches from the Helicarrier. He hesitated for a moment before jumping. Sarah launched herself to the beach and looked around, trying to find her dads. She waited for a moment before she saw Bucky, pulling Steve onto the he shore. He began to walk away. 

"Dad!" Sarah screamed. He continued walking. 

"Dad please!" She yelled. She grabbed his shoulder. He turned. 

"Do you know who I am?" She asked. He hesitated for a moment. 

"You're Sarah. You're my daughter. And that's my uniform." He said. Sarah smiled but when she looked into his mind she could see he was struggling to put the pieces together. She knew what he was gonna do and she understood. 

"I know you have to go but when you remember promise me you'll come home." Bucky was quiet for a moment. 

"I promise." He said quietly. Sarah walked forward and hugged him. He hesitated and then hugged her back. She pulled away and kissed him on the forehead. She watched him walk away and her heart broke but knowing he was going to come back made it easier. 

Steve woke up in a hospital bed to hear Trouble Man playing. Sam and Sarah sat next to his bed. 

"On your left." Sam said. Sarah laughed and grabbed her dads hand. He moved over slightly and pated next to him. Sarah laid down next to him. Sam looked at Steve and Sarah and smiled. For now it was over. 

Fury met Steve, Sarah, and Sam in the graveyard. 

"So, you've experienced this sort of thing before?" Nick asked. Sarah laughed lightly. 

"You get used to it." They looked down at Nicks gravestone. 

"We've been data-mining HYDRA's files. Looks Like a lot of rats didn't go down with the ship. I'm heading to Europe tonight, wanted to ask if you'd come." Nick said. Sarah smiled at him but shook her head. 

"There's something we gotta do first." He told Nick, holding onto Sarah. 

"How about you, Wilson? I could use a man with your abilities." Nick asked. 

"I'm more of a soldier than a spy." Sam said plainly. 

"Alright then." Sam and Steve shook Fury's hand. He turned to Sarah. She smiled and shook his hand. "Anybody asks for me, tell them they can find me right here." Fury looked at his gravestone and walked away. Natasha joined the three. 

"You should be honored, that's about as close as he gets to saying thank you." She joked. 

"Not going with him?" Steve asked. 

"No." 

"Not staying here?" Sarah asked. 

"I blew all my covers, I gotta go figure out a new one." She replied 

"That might take a while." Sarah said. 

"I'm counting on it." Natasha smirked and then turned to Steve. "That thing you asked for, I called in a few favors from Kiev." She handed Steve a file. "Will you do me a favor? Call that nurse. You need a friend who's not a guy and not your daughter. She needs a friend too." 

"She's not a nurse." 

"And you're not a SHIELD agent."

"What was her name again?"

"Sharon. She's nice." She kissed Steve on the cheek and turned to walk away. "Be careful, Steve. You might not want to pull on that thread." Natasha walked away and Steve opened the file. It showed Bucky's information regarding his Winter Soldier transformation and Sarah read over his shoulder. Sam walked over to Steve and Sarah. 

"You're going after him?" Sam asked. 

"You don't have to come with us." Sarah assured. 

"I know. When do we start?" 

"We just did." Steve responded. 

Sarah felt okay. She was fine with her dad being gone because he was going to come back. She didn't know that someone had the same powers as her because HYDRA used her blood to create someone to fight her. She didn't know that a huge threat was coming and she was going to help create it. For now Sarah was okay. 

She watched her dad begin to walk away and she made to follow after him. 

Sarah grinned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One, sorry for any mistakes. No one checks my work but me and I'm not so great at catching my wrong. Two, Jesus Christ this chapter is long. I don't think any other chapters will be long so don't expect again but you never know. It's easier to write about Sarah as she gets older. Three, her powers work almost exactly like Wanda's except she is more developed. This is kinda explained in this chapter but I will go into detail in the next chapter. That's all for now, next chapter should be up in about a week or two. Thanks for reading, please comment!


	4. Age Of Ultron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "This isn't a game, Tony. This is people's lives. If Wanda is afraid she has a right to be. Everyone should be. You have to stop messing with this shit, it only gets people killed."
> 
> Pause.
> 
> "So do you."

It was the year 2015.

Sarah had stayed with Bruce for a little while but once the fight got bad she left to help. She had told Bruce to stay in the jet but he knew he had to help. She punched a HYDRA agent in the face and then she heard the roar.

"Shit, Bruce." Sarah said looking over at him.

"Language!" Steve said. Sarah turned her head and looked at her dad. She used her powers to throw a group of agents back. "Jarvis, what's the view from upstairs?"

"The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield. Strucker's technology is well beyond any other Hydra base we've taken." Jarvis responded. Sarah looked around and then roundhouse kicked the agent approaching her.

"Loki's scepter must be here. Strucker couldn't mount this defense without it. At long last." Thor said. There was a pause

"At long last is lasting a little long, boys." Natasha claimed

"Yeah. I think we lost the element of surprise." Clint replied.

"You think?" Sarah asked, attempting to use her powers as a barricade to block a tank.

"Wait a second. No one else is going to deal with the fact that Cap just said "language?" Tony asked

"I know." Steve threw his bike at a truck driving towards him. "It just slipped out"

"Is that the fourth bike you've destroyed in two months, because I think it is?" Sarah smirked, walking up next to him. He looked over at her and glared, she laughed in response. Sarah looked over to see blur run past her and gust of wind follow.

"What was that?"

"Clint!" Sarah heard Natasha yell. Sarah stood for a moment looking around before Steve got knocked down. Sarah snapped her neck in the opposite direction and threw a burst of energy towards the ground in an attempt to stop him but he was already gone.

"We have an enhanced in the field." Steve claimed, standing up.

"Clint's hit!" Sarah heard "Somebody want to deal with that bunker?" Sarah heard the Hulk tear it apart. "Thank you." Sarah saw a new group of soldiers approaching.

"Stark, we're really need to get inside." Steve said

"I'm closing in. Jarvis, am I...closing in? Do you see a power source for that shield?" Tony asked

"There's a pathway below the north tower."

"Great, I wanna poke it with something." Stark blew up the invisible shield on the base

"Drawbridge is down, people." Tony told them

"The enhanced?" Sarah heard Thor say from behind her. She frowned

"The bastard that got Clint shot?" Sarah asked. Steve looked at her and frowned but said nothing about it.

"He's a blur. All the new player's we've faced, I've never seen this. In fact, I still haven't." Steve said after a moment of staring at his daughter.

"Clint's hit pretty bad, guys. We're gonna need evac." Natasha said. Sarah groaned in frustration.

"I'm tired. Why can't they just make this easy?" She asked. Steve chuckled.

"I can get Barton to the jet. The sooner we're gone the better. You and Stark secure the scepter." Thor told Steve and Sarah. Sarah looked down at the ground before nodding her head.

"Alright."

"Copy that." Steve continued. Sarah looked forward

"It looks like they're lining up." Sarah commented

"Well, they're excited." Steve said. Thor pounded on Steve's shield with his hammer and the force knocked down all the soldiers.

"Find the scepter." Thor said, before flying off.

"And for gosh sake, watch your language!" Tony ordered. Steve stopped and sighed. Sarah laughed.

"That's not going away anytime soon." Steve said. Sarah looked over in the opposite direction.

"We're locked down out here." Natasha called over the coms. Sarah sighed in relief

"Then get to Banner, time for a lullaby." Steve responded. Natasha nodded and walked away, Sarah following.

"Hey big guy. The sun's getting real low." The Hulk scowled at her. Natasha kneeled in front of him and put out her hand. The Hulk touched her hand and as she stroked his hand slowly he started to calm down. He stumbled away and changed into Bruce again. Sarah watched from afar for another moment and then ran off to find her dad. She found him walking up to Strucker. Sarah glared at him.

"Baron Strucker. Hydra's number one thug." Steve looked at him.

"Technically, I'm a thug for SHIELD." He laughed

"Well then technically you're unemployed." Sarah spat, stepping forward. Steve held out his arm to stop her. He glanced at her and then looked back at Strucker.

"Where's Loki's scepter?" Steve asked. Strucker looked at Sarah and then at Steve.

"Don't worry, I know when I'm beat. You'll mention how I cooperated, I hope." Strucker said. Sarah snorted.

"I'll put it right under illegal human experimentation. How many are there?" 

Sarah had been so busy focused on Strucker that when she sensed the fourth person it was too late. She knocked Steve down and practically flew out of the room. Sarah looked at the door, confused. 

"We have a second enhanced. Female. Do not engage." Steve looked at Strucker.

"You'll have to be faster than..." Sarah lifted Steve's shield with her powers and threw it at Strucker's face, never touching it.

"Fast enough for you?"

"Guys, Sarah and I got Strucker." Steve anounced

"Yeah, I got' Tony paused, hesitating on what to say. "Something bigger." Sarah and Steve walked out, after cuffing Strucker, and began leading him to the jet. "Thor, I got eyes on the prize." Sarah hears. She starts up the jet as they wait for Tony. He takes over pilot's seat when he arrives.

Then they are all on an aircraft heading out of Sokovia.

"Dad?" Sarah asked

"Yes?"

"You saw the powers of the female enhanced?" She asked. Steve looked at at her a nodded his head

"Yes."

"They were almost exactly like mine." Sarah replied

"I noticed."

Sarah looked down at the ground. Steve looked at her sadly and then pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead.

"I'm worried." Sarah admitted, hanging on to him for what felt like dear life.

"You are the strongest kid on the planet. You're gonna be just fine." Sarah wanted to tell her dad that she wasn't worried for herself but more for everyone else. She wanted to tell him that she knew Bruce was hurting and she knew Tony was hurting and she knew he was hurting. She wanted to tell him she was hurting. She wanted to.

But she didn't.

She walked away from him after another moment and sat across from Bruce.

Sarah had stared at Bruce listening very loudly to opera. She thought about talking to him but Natasha beat her to it.

"Hey, the lullaby worked better than ever." She comforted

"Just wasn't expecting the Code Green." Bruce responded, folding his headphones

"If you hadn't been there, there would've been double the casualties. My best friend would've been a treasured memory." She told him. He smiled sadly.

"You know, sometimes exactly what I want to hear isn't exactly what I want to hear." Bruce told her. Sarah smiled, knowing the feeling.

"How long before you trust me?"

"It's not you I don't trust." Bruce told her. Natasha looked down at the ground.

"Thor, report on the Hulk?" She asked.

"The gates of hell are filled with the screams of his victims." Natasha glared and Bruce groaned. Sarah actually laughed out loud. "Uh, but, not the screams of the dead, of course. No no, uh...wounded screams, mainly whimpering, a great deal of complaining and tales of sprained deltoids and, and uh... gout." Natasha was disappointed. Sarah was smiling and looking down, embarrassed for Thor.

Steve was stifling his laughter.

"Hey Sarah, Dr. Cho's on her way in from Seoul, is it okay if she sets up in your lab space?" Tony asked, interrupting

"Of course. She knows where everything is, she can use whatever she needs" Sarah said, looking at him, still smiling

"Thanks. Jarvis, take the wheel." Tony said.

"Yes, sir. Approach vector is locked." Jarvis told him. Tony stood and walked over to Steve, Sarah, and Thor. He looked as if he was going to grab the scepter but then he stopped and grabbed Thor's shoulder instead.

"It feels good, yeah? I mean, you've been after this thing since SHIELD collapsed. Not that I haven't enjoyed our little raiding parties, but."

"No, but this...this brings it to a close." Thor interrupted Tony

"As soon as we find out what else this has been used for. I don't just mean weapons. Since when is Strucker capable of human enhancement?"

"Since he figured out how to replicate my powers for one and enhance another with the tesseract." Sarah told them.

"What?'

"Well the first enhanced, the male, he was fast as hell. My guess is his powers came from the cube slash scepter. Now the female is another story. Her powers are almost exactly like mine. She was injected with my DNA to replicate my powers, at least that's the only logical explanation."

"Why would they do that?" Steve asked. Sarah looked at him in the eyes.

"You can't fight against yourself. I've been untouchable since the moment I discovered my powers and HYDRA sensed that. They needed someone like me with less morals to defeat me." Sarah told him. She then looked over at Tony.

"Banner, Sarah, and I'll give it the once before it goes back to Asgard. Is that cool with you? I mean, just a few days until the farewell party. You're staying right?" Tony asked. Sarah could sense something in his voice when he discussed the scepter but Sarah didn't have any clues as to why at the moment.

"Yes, yes, of course. A victory should be honored with revels."

"Yeah. Who doesn't love revels. Captain?" Tony asked

"Hopefully this puts an end to the Chiari and Hydra, so. Yes, revels." Steve replied

"Yes, all the revels." Sarah mumbled. The three of them looked at her. "Many much revel. So very much reveling." They all walked away "No more revels?" She yelled. There was silence

"Fine." She murmured under her breath.

The aircraft landed at the Avengers headquarters where Barton was taken to be treated. Maria walked up to Tony

"Lab's all set up, boss." She told Tony. Sarah laughed.

"Uh, actually, he's the boss." Tony murmured pointing at Steve. "I just pay for everything, and design everything and make everyone look cooler."

"What's the word on Strucker?" Steve asked walking of the aircraft, Sarah behind him

"NATO's got him."

"The two enhanced?"

"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins. Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building. Sokovia's had a rough history. It's nowhere special but it's on the way to everywhere special."

"Their abilities?" Steve asked. Sarah was intrigued what the answer was. She had had the powers for 4 years and she had yet to even attempt to figure out what they were, seeing as she didn't really care but knowing wouldn't hurt.

"He's got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neural electric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation." Sarah nodded her head in understanding but Steve looked confused.

"He's fast and she's weird."

"Hey." Sarah looked offended. Maria looked at her but said nothing.

"Well, they're going to show up again." Steve speculated.

"Agreed. File says they volunteered for Strucker's experiments. It's nuts." Maria said. Sarah laughed at the irony

"Right. What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?" Steve asked

"We're not at war, Captain." Steve and Sarah stepped into the elevator and Steve pressed the button. Sarah looked at Maria

"They are."

Sarah joined Tony and Bruce in the lab in the middle of a conversation.

"Well, the scepter. You see, we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive. So, I've been analyzing the gem inside you may recognize. Tony threw a hologram in front of Sarah

"Jarvis." She said

"Mrs. Barnes." He responded politely.

"Started out, Jarvis was just a natural language UI. Now he runs the Iron Legion. He runs more of the business than anyone besides Pepper. Top of the line." Tony explained

"I suspect not for long." Jarvis commented. Sarah smiled

"Meet the competition." Tony threw up another hologram but this one was different. This one didn't look mechanical.

"It's beautiful." Bruce said.

"If you had to guess, what's it look like it's doing?"

"Like it's thinking." Bruce said quickly. "I mean this could be a...it's not a human mind, it..."

"They're like neurons firing." Sarah placed the clipboard she had picked up when she had entered the room and moved closer to it. "Its mesmerizing."

"Down in Strucker's lab I saw some fairly advanced robotics work. They deep-sixed the data, but, I gotta guess he was knocking on a very particular door." Tony told them. Sarah stopped and then Bruce looked at Tony.

"Artificial intelligence." Bruce realized

"This could be it, Bruce. This could be the key to creating Ultron." He said. Sarah knew exactly what he was talking about but he knew it would be easier to get Bruce to help him then it would to get Sarah to agree.

"I thought Ultron was a fantasy." Bruce laughed

"Yesterday it was. If we can harness this power, apply it to my Iron Legion protocol." Tony suggested

"If? You aren't really giving me much confidence with if." Sarah told him, walking through the two of them

"Our job is if." Tony defended. He turned back to Bruce. "What if you were sipping margueritas on a sun-drenched beach turning brown instead of green. Not looking over your shoulder for VERONICA."

"Don't hate, we helped design VERONICA." Bruce told him.

"As a worst-case measure, right? How about a best-case? What if the world was safe? What if next time aliens roll up to the club, and they will, they couldn't get past the bouncer?"

"The only people threatening the planet would be people." Bruce said definitively

"I want to apply this to the Ultron program. But Jarvis can't download a data schematic this dense. We can only do it while we have the scepter here, that's three days, give me three days."

'So you're going for artificial intelligence and you don't want to tell the team." Sarah looked at him skeptically and Bruce picked up a tablet to begin looking at the AI

"Right. That's right, you know why, because we don't have time for a city hall debate. I don't want to hear the "man was not meant to meddle" medley. I see a suit of armor around the world."

"Sounds like a cold world, Tony." Bruce told him

"I've seen colder. This one, this very vulnerable blue one? It needs Ultron. Peace in our time. Imagine that."

Sarah argued for a few minutes but she gave in fairly quickly. The three of them worked for the three days but all of the variations they ran failed. Two hours before the party Sarah and Tony stood in the lab. Sarah was staring at her notes.

"What did we miss?" Tony asked. Sarah shook her head.

"I'll continue to run variations on the interface, but you should probably prepare for your guests. I'll notify you if there are any developments."

"Thanks, buddy."

"Enjoy yourself, sir, Mrs. Barnes."

Sarah put on a dress and makeup for the first time since she was 10 and she had to go to a Howard Stark party. She threw her hair half up and half down and called it done.

"Well, you know, the suit can take the weight, right? So I take the tank, fly it right up to the General's palace, drop it at his feet, I'm like, "Boom! You looking for this?" Sarah, Tony, and Thor stand and stare blankly "Boom! Are you looking..." Why do I even talk to you guys? Everywhere else that story kills." Rhodey complains. Sarah smiles at him in confusion

"That's the whole story?" Thor asks after a moment

"Yeah, it's a War Machine story." Rhodey admits, looking a bit defeated. Sarah laughs at his new demeanor

"Well, it's very good then. It's impressive." Thor replies. James glares at him

"Quality save." Sarah whispers to Thor. James glares at her next and then turns to Tony.

"So, no Pepper? She's not coming?"

"No."

"Hey, what about Jane? Where are the ladies, gentlemen?" Maria asks, taking a sip of her beer.

"Well, Ms. Potts has a company to run." Tony defends.

"Yes, I'm not even sure what country Jane's in. Her work on the convergence has made her the world's foremost astronomer." Thor tells them

"And the company that Pepper runs is the largest tech conglomerate on earth. It's pretty exciting." Tony was now competing with Thor.

"There's even talk of Jane getting a... um, uh... Nobel prize." Thor was winning

"Yeah, they...they must be busy because they'd hate missing you guys get together." Sarah responded, grabbing the soda and two beers she had originally showed up for from behind the counter. Maria mocked a cough

"Testosterone! Oh, excuse me."

"Want a lozenge?" Rhodey asked. Sarah laughed and walked away before she heard any more of the conversation. She walked up to her dad and Sam. She handed them each a beer and the opened the coke bottle. The men nodded their heads towards her. The three of them began to walk up the stairs.

"Sounds like a hell of a fight, sorry I missed it." Sam told Steve.

"If I had known it was going to be a firefight I absolutely would have called you." Steve responded.

"No, I'm not actually sorry. I'm just trying to sound tough. I'm very happy chasing cold leads on our missing persons case. Avenging is your world. Your world is crazy."

"Be it ever so humble." Steve replied

"Any leads?" Sarah asked. Sam smiled sadly and shook his head. Sarah nodded her head in understanding.

"You find a place in Brooklyn yet?" Sam asked after a moment.

"I don't think I can afford a place in Brooklyn." Steve responded

"Well, home is home, you know?" Sarah spent the rest of the party sitting on the couch thinking about Ultron. She knew she would leave after the party and go run new variations through the interface. She had been calculating things in her head and was sure she could get Ultron up and running before took the scepter. The rest of the Avengers joined her on the couched about an hour later.

"But, it's a trick!" Clint claimed, referring to Thor's hammer.

"Oh, no. It's much more than that." Thor defended

"Uh, "Whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power!" Whatever man! It's a trick."

"Well please, be my guest." Thor offered. There was a pause.

"Come on." Stark ushered. Sarah laughed.

"Really?"

"Yeah!" Clint stood up and walked over to it.

"Oh this is gonna be beautiful." Sarah said.

"Clint, you've had a tough week, we won't hold it against you if you can't get it up." Everyone laughed.

"You know I've seen this before, right?" Clint grabbed Thor's hammer and attempted to lift it but he failed. "And I still don't know how you do it."

"Smell the silent judgment?" Tony asked

"Please, Stark, by all means." Tony stood up and unbuttoned his suit jacket. Sarah judged him in every sense of the word.

"Oh, here we go." Natasha replied

"Uh-oh." Rhodey confused

"Never one to shrink from an honest challenge." Tony told everyone. Sarah smirked.

"Get after it." Sarah taunted. The team laughed.

"Here we go." Steve said, next to her.

"It's physics." Tony commented

"Physics!" Bruce mocked. Tony glared at him for a moment and then looked back at the hammer.

"Right, so, if I lift it, I...I then rule Asgard?" Tony looked at Thor

"Yes, of course." Thor promised

"I will be re-instituting Prima Nocta." Stark tried to lift the hammer but failed. "I'll be right back." Tony came back wearing the glove of his suit. Sarah outright laughed. Tony tried to lift the hammer again and failed. He looked at Rhodey. Rhodey stepped out and then came back wearing a glove. Sarah looks in disbelief and then laughed.

"Are you even pulling?" James asked

"Are you on my team?" Tony replied

"Just represent! Pull!" Rhodey retorts.

Bruce got up and attempted to lift it but failed. He let go and yelled, as if he was gonna turn into the Hulk. Everyone stares blankly at him.

"No?" He asked. Sarah just shook her head. Steve stood up and began rolling his sleeves.

"Let's go, Steve, no pressure. Come on, Cap." Tony jokes. Steve started pulling on the hammer and manages to budge it a little but in the end it sits till. Thor laughed with relief.

"Nothing." Thor said

"Widow?" Bruce asked. She shook her head.

"Oh, no no. That's not a question I need answered." She took a sip of her beer.

"All deference to the man who wouldn't be king, but it's rigged." Tony defended

"You bet your ass." Clint continued

"Steve, he said a bad language word." Maria joked. Steve sighed and looked at Tony

"Did you tell everyone about that?"

"The handle's imprinted, right? Like a security code. "Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints" is, I think, the literal translation?"

"Yes Tony, that is very interesting theory. I have a simpler one." Thor begins. He picks up the hammer and flips it. "You're all not worthy."

"Whatever!" 

Everyone laughed

"Worthy... No... How could you be worthy? You're all killers." The voice said. They all turned and looked towards it. Sarah's smile faded and she turned her head slowly.

"Stark." Steve said.

"Jarvis." Tony returned

"I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or...I was a dream?" The robot continues

"Reboot, Legionnaire, we got a buggy suit." Tony taps on his phone.

"That's not a bug." Sarah said quietly. They all looked at her then snapped their heads back to the bot.

"There was a terrible noise...and I was tangled in... in...strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" Steve asked

"Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices."

"Who sent you?" Steve continued but already Sarah knew exactly who sent him and exactly who this was.

"I see a suit of armor around the world" This wasn't the voice of the robot but it was a recording of Tony's voice. This confirmed Sarah's suspicions.

"Ultron." Bruce realized after her

"In the flesh. Or, no, not yet. Not this...chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission." Ultron said.

"What mission?" Natasha asked

"Peace in our time." Suddenly the Iron Legion bots broke through the walls. Sarah looked at her dad and then he threw the table. Sarah was immediately shot at. She felt something hit her and she looked at her shoulder, and there was a hole. Sarah fell to the ground

"Fuck!" She screamed in pain. Steve was about to tell her to watch her mouth but he saw her shoulder. It was broken open on one side but didn't seem to go through. There was no permanent damage, Sarah could tell but the hole was annoying nonetheless and she wanted to patch it up.

"Stark!" Steve yelled running over to her.

"We are here to help." The bot said to him.

"One sec, one sec!" He yelled, not realizing Sarah was injured

"We are here to help. We are here to help.  It's unsafe. It's unsafe." Tony attempted to push a pen into its neck. Steve saw something flying towards Helen so he ran towards it. Sarah struggled for a moment and then stood up. Sarah saw Thor's hammer on the ground and for some reason it drew her. She reached her hand out and there it was. 

"Oh my god" Sarah murmured. She looked down at it. 

"Cap!" Clint yelled, throwing Steve's shield. He caught it and he threw it at a bot. Sarah looked over to Ultron, holding the hammer. 

"That was dramatic! I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't- didn't think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to...evolve?" He picked up a dismembered iron legion bot." With these? These puppets? There's only one path to peace: The Avengers' extinction." Sarah threw his hammer at Ultron and smashed him into pieces. Thor looked at her in disbelief and then he reached his hand out and it flew to him. Sarah walked up to the destroyed robot slowly and listened to Ultron sing

"I had strings, but now I'm free. There are no strings on me"

Sarah kicked it and then began to make her way to the lab. She sat there in silence for a moment and the she grabbed the needle and thread from Tony's emergency kit. He had kept it there because there was an injury from at least one of the people who spent their entire lives in the lab, Sarah, Tony, or Bruce, at least once a week. She looked at her shoulder and then pressed the two pieces of skin together with her fingers. Using her powers, she lifted the needle without her hand and she began sewing her skin together. Everyone joined her a moment later. No one said a word about what she was doing, most likely because they knew she knew what she was doing and asking her about it would only earn them a glare.

"You're worthy?" Steve asked her. Sarah looked at him. 

"Apparently." 

"All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch." Bruce said after a moment of silent working.

"Ultron." Steve mumbled

"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Natasha speculated.

"He's in your files, the internet. What if he decides to access something a bit more exciting?" Rhodey asked. Sarah pulled the needle through one last time and then began to tie a knot, the needle and leftover thread falling onto the counter.

"Nuclear codes." Maria realized.

"Nuclear codes. Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can." Rhodey told them. Sarah looked at them and then began wiping the blood off her shoulder.

"Nukes? He said he wanted us dead." Natasha turned back towards Clint

"He didn't say dead." Steve said

"He said extinct." Sarah finished

"He also said he killed somebody." Clint stood up.

"But there wasn't anyone else in the building." Maria pointed out

"Yes, there was." Tony threw the hologram of a now destroyed Jarvis out. Sarah stood up immediately and walked over to it.

"Jesus." She murmured.

"This is insane." Bruce said.

"Jarvis was the first line of defense. He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense." Steve replied

"No, Ultron could've assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy, this is...rage." Bruce breathed. Suddenly, Thor grabbed a hold of Stark by his throat and held him up.

"It's going around." Clint said.

"Come on. Use your words, buddy." Tony choked. Sarah was tempted to stop Thor but Tony was an ass-hat and he deserved it.

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark."

"Thor!" Steve yelled "The Legionnaire."

Thor practically threw Tony to the ground

"Trail went cold about a hundred miles out but it's headed north, and it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again." Thor yelled

"The genie's out of that bottle. Clear and present is Ultron." Natasha told them.

"I don't understand. You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?" Helen asked and then Tony started laughing. Bruce shook his head as a sign that he should stop but Tony still laughed.

"You think this is funny?" Thor asked

"No. It's probably not, right? Is this very terrible? Is it so...is it so...it is. It's so terrible." Tony told him.

"This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand." Thor told him, walking closer to Tony

"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."

"Tony, maybe this might not be the time to..." Bruce began but tony interrupted.

"Really?! That's it? You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls."

"Only when I've created a murder bot." Bruce told him

"We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?" Tony asked. Sarah and Bruce both nodded their heads because clearly they were close seeing as a murder bot existed.

"Well, you did something right. And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD." Steve told him. Tony paused.

"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?"

"No, it's never come up." Rhodey began.

"Saved New York?"

"Never heard that." Rhodey continued

"Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the live long day, but, that up there? That's...that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?" He asked, walking forward. Sarah walked in front of him and stopped him.

"Together." She said.

"We'll lose." Tony told her.

"Then we'll do that together, too." Steve said, stepping next to Sarah. Tony looked at them for a moment before turning away.

"Thor's right. Ultron's calling us out and we should find him before he's ready for us." Sarah began. Steve nodded his head.

"The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller." Steve ordered.

Sarah went to bed and woke up every time she rolled onto her shoulder and eventually, at 6 in the morning after waking up at least 4 times from 1 to 6 she finally gave up.

Sarah got up, took some Advil, grabbed a red bull and walked up to the lab. Her first task was to look at everything in the computer and see what was missing. The she tried to get any missing files back and print them so that Ultron couldn't steal them again. Slowly people had joined her and by 3 in the afternoon everyone except her dad was in the lab.

When Steve arrived he threw a tablet on the desk on top of the paperwork Tony had pulled for artificial intelligence.

"What's this?" Sarah asked pulling her eyes away from the only documentation she had been able to retrieve from what Ultron had wiped.

"A message. Ultron killed Strucker." Steve replied. Sarah picked up the tablet. Tony looked over her shoulder and then she handed it to him.

"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us." Tony said. Sarah laughed lightly.

"This is a smokescreen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" Natasha asked

"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss." Steve replied.

"Everything we had on Strucker has been erased as of this morning." Sarah told them.

"Not everything." Tony smirked. Sarah caught on immediately and smiled. She and Bruce followed Tony and when they came back they were each carrying two boxes and three more were flying behind her.  

"Known associates. Well, Strucker had a lot of friends." Steve said after they had set the boxes down and people had begun looking through them.

"Well, these people are all horrible." Bruce commented.

"Wait. I know that guy." Tony said. Bruce passed him the photo he was looking at. "From back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms."

"And how do you know that?" Sarah asked him.

"There are conventions, alright? You meet people, I didn't sell him anything." Tony defended "He was talking about finding something new, a game changer, it was all very Ahab."

"And did he find it?" Sarah asked

"I have no idea" Tony admitted, Thor walked over and Tony handed him the file

"This. What is that?" He asked, pointing at something on the man's neck

"Uh, it's a tattoo. I don't think he had it..." Tony starts

"No, those are tattoos, this is a brand." Bruce looked at it and then looked at the computer.  He took a moment before identifying it

"Oh, yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning thief, in a much less friendly way." He told them. Sarah looked at it.

"What dialect?" Sarah asked after a moment

"Wakanada...? Wa...Wa...Wakanda."

"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..." Tony said, looking at Steve and Sarah.

"I thought your father said he got the last of it?" Steve said, looking between Sarah and Tony.

"I don't follow. What comes out of Wakanda?" Bruce asked. The three looked at Steve's shield

"The strongest metal on earth." Sarah commented. Tony and Sarah looked at Steve

"Where is this guy now?" Steve asked.

Sarah had suited up in Bucky's old uniform, altered to fit her, and was in the jet in 5 minutes. She hadn't been listening when they said where he was, she was practically out of the room already. She was the first to the jet so she started it and waited for the others. Her dad was next, then Bruce, then Tony, Nat, Thor, and finally Clint. Tony took control of the wheel and then her dad began discussing the plan.

"Okay, Thor, Tony, Sarah and I are gonna go through the front door. Nat and Clint, I want you as stealthily as possible to go in the back way. Banner stay here and stay calm. If it's a code green, we'll tell you."

"Wouldn't I be more affective if I go in back, help out with them?" Sarah asked

"No, we want Wanda to see you. If she sees someone with her powers but more advanced it may make her more prone to make a mistake." Sarah nodded her head and wondered why she hadn't thought of that. She felt really distracted lately and she was wondering if anyone else has seen it too.

She sat silently in the back of the jet until they arrived. Bruce dropped them on the top of the ship and then parked far way, so as to stay away from the fighting. Sarah followed her dad and then she saw Ultron.

"Stark is a sickness!" Ultron yelled.

"Ahh, Junior." Tony landed on the platform. "You're gonna break your old man's heart." Thor and Steve walked up behind him and Sarah landed, immediately making eye contact with Wanda who seemed to have no idea Sarah had the same powers until now. Sarah smirked at Wanda's confusion.

"If I have to." Ultron replied

"Nobody has to break anything." Thor interrupted. Sarah had the perfect response.

"Clearly you've never made an omelet." Ultron retorted, practically stealing the words out of Sarah's mouth. She rolled her eyes.

"He beat me by one second." Tony said lightheartedly.

"Ah, this is funny, Mr. Stark. It's what, comfortable? Like old times?" Pietro asked. Sarah and Tony looked around.

"This was never my life." Tony told them. Steve stepped forward.

"You two can still walk away from this."

"Oh, we will." Wanda replied.

"I know you've suffered."

"Ugh! Captain America. God's righteous man, pretending you could live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but..." Ultron interrupted

"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it." Thor requested

"I think you're confusing peace with quiet."

"Yuh-huh. What's the Vibranium for?" Tony asked.

"I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan." It was a split second and then they were being attacked. Sarah wanted to use her powers but she knew if she did Wanda may learn from her and she couldn't take that risk. She pulled out a gun and began shooting. She aimed and shot at them until she ran out of ammo. She cursed and then holstered it once again. One flew at her so she jumped, flipped over it, wrapped her arm around its neck, and then she brought it down. Its head separated from its body.

She looked around for Wanda but didn't see her.

"Thor! Status?" Steve ordered. Sarah was still looking for Wanda.

"Have you seen either of the Maximoffs?" She asked

"The girl tried to warp my mind. Take special care, I doubt a human could keep her at bay. Fortunately, I am mighty."

Sarah rolled her eyes and then jumped off the railing to a stair case. She turned a corner and she felt Wanda's presence just a second too late. She felt her mind being messed with as it was happening.

Sarah turned around to see the park, the one her dads used to take her to. Sarah could tell it was the 50's. She knew the style and the music. Her dads were both in suits and she was in a dress. She looked happy, healthy. They had money, that was clear by what they wore. Sarah could tell this wasn't old hand-me-downs or thrift store clothes. Her dads were holding hands and no one around them said a thing about it.

This was the life she used to imagine she would be living, when she was seven. She thought her dads and her would grow up happy.

"Sarah, baby, come on." Bucky said. Holding out his hand. Sarah moved forward and hesitantly touched it. Bucky smiled at her and Steve smiled beside him.

"Happy birthday love." Steve said. Sarah smiled sadly.

"What's wrong baby?" Bucky asked.

"It's not fair daddy. This was it. This was what was supposed to happen. We were supposed to live this life, the three of us but we didn't. This is a lie." Sarah heard a loud explosion. She turned to see New York City on fire. She snapped her head back to her dads to see Steve, frozen in ice, and Bucky missing an arm and bleeding. Sarah looked at them in horror. They were both dead. Behind them was the rest of the team, all dead as well. She screamed.

"No! Please god, no!" She looked at them all dead

"Daddy, dad. I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry." She looked at Steve, then Bucky then them all

"Wake up. Please wake up." She heard her voice in her head but her mouth wasn't moving. Their eyes all opened at once.

"You did this. You killed us all" Tony said.

"You couldn't help yourself could you?" Natasha said it this time.

"You're even more of a monster than I could ever be" This was Bruce

"Killer. You've murdered us all." Thor claimed

"No." She whispered, looking down. She looked back up at her dads.

"You're a disgrace. How could you do this to us?" Steve asked. Sarah began to hyperventilate. She looked at Bucky and moved towards him. He caressed her face. She leaned into it.

"Please forgive me Daddy."

Bucky's eyes went from loving to cold.

"You're no daughter of mine." He pushed her. She fell to the ground and they all began walking towards her. She scrambled away.

"Sarah wake up." It was her voice again. She stood up. 

She stopped crying and spun around again to see the ship. She took a few deep breaths and then wiped her face.

"Natasha, I could really use a lullaby." Tony begged.

"Well, that's not gonna happen. Not for a while. The whole team is down, you got no back up here."

Sarah heard this but for some reason she couldn't respond. She felt like she wasn't herself. She took another deep breath. She could hear Tony's voice; she could feel his desperation for help but she couldn't speak. She stepped forward and she felt weightless, like she wasn't stepping. She shook her head and then took one more breath.

"Sarah. Wake up." This was Bucky's voice. Sarah blinked slowly and then she felt at home. She was back in her body.

"Tony?" She asked. "I can do it."

"You can do what?" Tony asked. Sarah lifted herself and flew to the nearest city just in time to see the building crash. She landed in front of it to see the army pointing guns at Bruce.

"Wait!" She screamed, forcing all of their guns down. They all looked at her. She turned back towards the hulk.

"Hey big guy." She looked at him and spoke lovingly. He shook his head. "Sun's getting real low." She said Bruce stood up and reached his hand out. Sarah placed her and above his and she flicked her hand on his wrists. He breathed heavily and fell over. He began to change and Sarah ran over to him. Her head was pounding but it didn't matter, Bruce was more important.

"Bruce! Bruce, love, you're okay." She fell down and placed his head in her lap. Bruce lifted it and looked around.

"Yeah but they aren't." He whispered. Sarah felt his pain. She stood up and Tony came over.

"Take him?" She asked. Tony nodded his head. She followed him to the jet.

She sat down in a seat silently, thinking about the dreams in her head. They were haunting. She couldn't shake the images in her mind. She just sat there, staring blankly staring ahead until Tony walked up to her.

"Hey kid." He said quietly. She looked up at him, startled.

"Hey." She replied, almost whispering. Tony was quiet for a moment before he sat down beside her and turned towards her direction.

"How did you do the lullaby? You've never been trained and you've never worked on it with him." Tony said. Sarah smiled sadly.

"Bruce trusts very few people. I had seen Nat do it plenty of times and I was hoping he trusted me enough. It was either that or the Hulk killed a bunch of people. I didn't know but risking my life seemed a better choice than risking a bunch of innocent people to someone who had no clue what he was doing. The best part? I assumed he would rip me to shreds and I didn't care." She told him, her eyes never leaving the ground.

"You're even more of a monster than I could ever be"

"Sarah..."

"You did this. You killed us all."

"They tortured him Tony. They tortured my dad and practically killed the other and they murdered our biological father and I didn't know. I did nothing to stop it, I didn't even know they were there. I just sat idly by. I tried to be a good daughter but I can't seem to get a fucking grip. I just feel so helpless. I let my dad's die and was so stupid. I was so naïve Tony. I just don't want to do this anymore. It's not worth it. Nothing is." Sarah laughed dryly.

"Sarah Grace Rogers-Barnes, none of this is your fault. No one knew they were there so how the hell can we expect a 16-year-old girl to, even a genius doesn't know everything. You are so brave and no matter what you are worth it. You always will be. Always."

Sarah stared ahead blankly. She could feel her heart beating in her head and she winced. Tony stood up and walked away. Sarah lied down and stared ahead. She attempted to sleep.

"You are no daughter of mine."

"Killer."

"Monster."

"You couldn't help yourself could you?"

"The news is loving you guys. Nobody else is. There's been no official call for Banner's arrest, but it's in the air." Maria said over the intercom. It was late, one in the morning maybe, and Sarah had still not fallen asleep. Her head felt like it was going to implode and she was going to take everyone on this plane with her.

"Stark Relief Foundation?" Tony asked

"Already on the scene. How's the team?"

"Everyone's..." Tony hesitated. He looked back at his sister lying in her bed, eyes wide open. He sighed and looked at the ground "We took a hit. We'll shake it off."

"Well for now I'd stay in stealth mode, and stay away from here." Maria replied

"So, run and hide?"

"Until we can find Ultron, I don't have a lot else to offer." Maria defended.

"Neither do we."

Sarah's dad shook her awake early in the morning and told her it was time to get up. She was exhausted, angry, and she needed a shower. They emerged from the jet and looked around.

"What is this place?" Sarah asked, rubbing her head in the hopes that it would stop throbbing.

"A safe house?" Tony continued.

"Let's hope." Clint told them. He took a deep breath and then opened the door. "Honey? I'm home"

From the opposite side of the kitchen a very pregnant women emerged.

"What?" Sarah whispered under her breath.

"Hi. Company. Sorry didn't call ahead." He told her, moving forward.

"Hey." She replied, throwing her dish towel on the counter. Clint kissed her.

"This is an agent of some kind." Tony mumbled to Sarah. She continued to look at the picture in front of her. Clint looked at them

"Guys, this is Laura." He introduced

"I know all your names." She said. They all looked awkwardly at her and then they heard footsteps.

"Ooh, incoming." Clint said. Out of the door way two kids, one boy and a younger girl, flew through, forward towards Clint.

"Dad!" The little girl screamed. Clint picked her up and Sarah had a hard time not seeing herself in this little girl, always waiting for her daddy to come home. What happens if one day he doesn't?  

"These are...smaller agents." Tony continued.

"Did you bring Auntie Nat?" The little girl asked. Sarah looked over at Natasha and her face lit up.

"Why don't you hug her and find out?" The girl jumped into to Natasha's arms and Sarah frowned. She was just like Sarah with Alison. Sarah was a mess. She was angry and she just wanted her dads.

"Sorry for barging in on you." Steve said.

"Yeah, we would have called ahead, but we were busy having no idea that you existed." Tony continued

"Yeah, well Fury helped me set this up when I joined. He kept it off SHIELD's files, I'd like to keep it that way. I figure it's a good place to lay low."

Sarah stopped listening. She walked up to Laura.

"I was wondering if I could take a shower?" She asked. Laura smiled

"Of course. Towels are in the cabinet next to the bathroom door. I'll take a look through my pre maternity clothes and find something that should fit you." She replied. Sarah smiled.

"Thank you." Sarah smiled.  "Also, where would be a good place for me to sleep?"

"Oh, take the guest room for now, we will figure out the arrangements for tonight later."

Sarah's shower turned into a scalding, almost fire like burning, bath, where she just lied there. She had done a mixture of crying and screaming but now it was just nothing.

She was just...

Nothing

She got out of the bath an hour after it had gone cold and realized she had been in that bathroom for three hours. She dried herself off and walked across the hall to the room Laura said she could sleep in. Siting in the chair was a pair of jeans and a loose top. She put them on and the fit almost perfectly. She looked at herself in the mirror.

She didn't look like herself. She looked dead. She looked like a ghost.

Then she took a nap

When she awoke, she sat there for a moment and then she got up and looked out the window. She saw her dad and Tony standing across from each other. She sighed and then she made her way out there.

At first she laid on the side of the small hill, noiselessly breathing. After a few moments however she sat up and looked at the two men sitting there, then plucked a flower from the ground. Then she plucked another. Then another and another until she had about twenty flowers piled in front of her

"Thor didn't say where he was going for answers?" Tony asked, looking around and then splitting another piece of wood. Sarah sat next to Steve's wood pile, silently making Daisy chains.

"Sometimes my teammates don't tell me things. I was kind of hoping Thor would be the exception." Steve responded, looking at Tony. He chopped another log and threw it into his pile.

"Yeah, give him time. We don't know what the Maximoff kid showed him." Tony said. She laughed lightly.

"I do." She said. They both stopped and looked at her

"What?" Steve asked

"I know what she showed all of you. I saw it. I realize it's like an invasion of privacy but I couldn't really help it. I couldn't control my mind." Sarah looked down. "I couldn't help anything."

Silence.

"What did Thor see?" Tony asked

"I couldn't tell. Lightning and gems and then darkness." She told them.

More silence.

"Earth's Mightiest Heroes." Pulled us apart like cotton candy." Steve mumbled

"Seems like you walked away all right." Tony replied, raising an eyebrow and then chopping another piece of wood.

"Is that a problem?"

"I don't trust a guy without a dark side. Call me old fashioned."

"You know what Tony, just shut up." Sarah said angrily. He glared at her and Steve grabbed another piece of wood.

"Well let's just say you haven't seen it yet." Steve replied. Tony looked back at him

"You know Ultron is trying to tear us apart, right?"

"Well I guess you'd know. Whether you tell us is a bit of a question." Sarah felt that blow

"We were doing research." Tony defended. Sarah scoffed

"That would affect the team."

Tony began to yell

"That would end the team. Isn't that the mission? Isn't that the "why" we fight, so we can end the fight, so we get to go home?"

Steve had pulled the log in half with his bare hands and Sarah flinched.

"Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die. Every time."

There was a pause and Laura approached them from the porch.

"I'm sorry. Mr. Stark, uh, Clint said you wouldn't mind, but, our tractor, it doesn't seem to want to start at all. I thought maybe you might..."

"Yeah, I'll give her a kick." Tony turned to leave but then quickly looked back at his pile, which was half as big as Steve's "Don't take from my pile."

Tony walked away, therefore Steve turned and looked Sarah. She glanced up from her daisy chain momentarily and then added another flower.

"Sarah." He said. She glanced up again to see Steve, his axe resting on the large log and his hand resting on the axe, using it to balance him.

"Steve." She replied. He gave her a stern look and she smiled sadly.

"What did you see?" Steve asked. Sarah laughed dryly.

"My world gone to shit. Well more than it already has. Everyone dead and it was all my fault" She said. Steve set the axe down. Sarah looked down at the ground. "I saw dad."

"Sarah." He murmured sadly. He moved towards Sarah. She, in response, threw down the flowers and stood up quickly, her eyes flashing red.

"Don't." She warned. He backed up. "I am not some baby you have to comfort."

"I know that Sarah." He said calmly. "I'm just trying to help"

"Then stop acting like you're fine!" Sarah screamed. "You aren't fine! You're trying to hold everything together and all its doing is making the rest of us feel weak! You. Are not. Fine." Sarah was seething. Steve looked at her sympathetically.

"I'm sorry." He told her.

"Yeah." She replied bitterly. She began to rub her temples. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't see. She couldn't hear. She couldn't feel her dad touch her forehead. She couldn't feel herself beginning to fall over. She couldn't feel anything.

"You're a disgrace. How could you do this to us?" 

"Sarah?" Steve asked. She snapped back into reality.

"I'm fine." Sarah lied. "I just need some water." She took a deep breath and then she walked towards the house however when she was sure he dad was no longer looking at her she turned and made her way to the jet. She opened the door and walked in. She lied down on the ground in silence. She waited a few moments.  
Then she sat up and then stood up and then she began trashing things. She screamed at the top of her lungs and papers began flying everywhere, and she watched as everything went to hell without her even touching it. 

Almost like her life except she did touch her life and that's why she was screaming right now. 

She stopped and looked at the picture around her. It was a mess. She began picking up the papers and filing them back into where they go. It took her an hour. After she was done she stood in the direct center of the jet.

Then she just fell to the ground.

She didn't understand what was wrong with her. Why was this affecting her so much? Why did this hurt so bad?

"Jarvis?" She asked after a moment.

"Yes Mrs. Barnes?"

"Can you play music please?" She asked, staring at the ceiling

"Any particular kind?" He asked. Sarah sat for a moment.

Silence.

"No."

When AC/DC began playing Sarah hardly even realized what it was. She just sat there and listened to it, breathing with the beats. She was there for two more hours. When she finally got back inside she saw Nick Fury standing in the kitchen.

"You bastard." She laughed.

"And where have you been?" Nick asked

"The jet. Better question is where have you been?" Sarah asked. Nick stared.

"Not important." Nick turned back to the team that Sarah hadn't even noticed was there.

"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time. My contacts all say he's building something. The amount of Vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing."

"What about Ultron himself?" Sarah asked, walking over to her dad. He looked at her for a moment and then pulled her in for a hug. She hugged back. They continued to stand like that for a long time. 

"Ah. He's easy to track, he's everywhere. Guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though."

"He still going after launch codes?" Tony asked. Nick turned to him

"Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway."

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare."

"Of course you did." Sarah murmured. Tony looked at her and winked.

"Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that." Nick responded

"NEXUS?" Steve asked. Sarah looked up. 

"It's the world internet hub in Oslo, every byte of data flows through there, fastest access on earth." She told him

"So what'd they say?" Bruce asked

"He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed." Nick replied, crossing his arms and leaning back on to the counter

"By whom?" Tony stood up from his chair

"Parties unknown."

"Do we have an ally?" Natasha seemed almost hopeful

"Ultron's got an enemy, that's not the same thing. Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is." Nick told them

"I might need to visit Oslo, find our "unknown." Tony said.

"I'll do it. I'm not really up for tracking down and fighting Ultron and the lab gets crowded." Sarah volunteered. Tony nodded his head.

"Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that." Natasha said after a silent moment

"I do, I have you. Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. Here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard."

"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk." Natasha joked. Steve finally let go of Sarah.

"You know what, Romanoff?" Steve threatened. Natasha smiled mischievously at him.

"So what does he want?" Fury asked

"To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies." Steve replied

"Person bodies. The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it." Tony continued

"When you three programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed." Natasha joked

"They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve. Ultron's going to evolve." Bruce realized

"How?" Nick asked. Bruce shrugged his shoulders and looked around. Everyone was thinking. Sarah furrowed her brows and spoke up.

"When was the last time anyone talked to Helen Cho?"

The team began suiting up. Sarah looked ahead at her dad in uniform. Tony approached him and Sarah followed.

"I'll take Natasha and Clint" Steve told them. Sarah nodded her head

"Alright, strictly recon. I'll hit the NEXUS and drop of Sarah, I'll join you as soon as I can."

"If Ultron is really building a body..." Sarah began

"He'll be more powerful than any of us. Maybe all of us. An android designed by a robot." Tony finished. Steve looked at the ground then smiled slightly

"You know I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science ever created was me." Steve told them. Sarah hugged her dad

"I'll drop Banner off at the tower. Do you mind if I borrow Ms. Hill?" Nick looked at Tony

"She's all yours, apparently. What are you gonna do?"

"I don't know. Something dramatic, I hope."

Sarah looked up at her dad

"I know I've been acting kinda strange lately. I'm sorry."

"Sarah, its okay. If anyone has the right to be on edge it's you." Steve kissed his daughter's forehead. She pulled back.

"Just stay safe okay? I'll never forgive you if you die out there." Sarah ordered. Steve smiled

"Yes ma'am." He said. He hugged her again. 

"I love you dad. Please be smart." 

"I'll see you soon." He told her.

"Promise?" She asked

"Promise." He replied definitively. Sarah smiled and walked away with Tony

She stood at the central computer system at NEXUS. She knew what she was supposed to be doing but the system was incredible. She looked through it for a moment before remembering her task.

"A hacker who's faster than Ultron? He could be anywhere. There's a lot of data to search through before I can even begin to track him down." Sarah opened another file then closed it

"How do you find it?" A tech asked. Sarah smiled

"You bring a magnet." She smirked and searched through another file. "Come and get me."

About ten minutes later she called Tony.

"Hello." He said.

"You are never going to guess who I found fighting Ultron."

Tony was supposed to come get her from NEXUS.

He didn't.

Sarah cursed under her breath and then asked NEXUS if she could borrow a jet.

She flew home and she stormed into the lab. She emerged through the door to see Tony and Bruce doing exactly what she thought they were going to be doing.

"Fucking hell Tony!" He looked at her "I can't leave you alone for an hour can I?!" She called angrily. Then Steve ran into the lab with Wanda and Pietro Maximoff.

"I'm gonna say this once." Steve yelled

"How about "nonce"?" Tony replied

"Shut it down." Steve ordered

"Nope, not gonna happen."

"You don't know what you're doing."

"And you do? She's not in your head?" Bruce asked, almost yelling.

"I know you're angry." Wanda said, attempting to reason with him

"Oh, we're way past that. I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade."

"Bruce, after everything that's happened..." Sarah began

"That's nothing compared to what's coming!" Tony interrupted

"You don't know what's in there!" Wanda yelled.

"This isn't a game, Tony. This is people's lives. If Wanda is afraid she has a right to be. Everyone should be. You have to stop messing with this shit, it only gets people killed."

Pause.

"So do you." Tony muttered.

"You did this. You killed us all."

Sarah could hear her heart beating in her head. She felt her breathing. She looked in Tony's head to see hatred and fear. Then she saw it in Bruce.

"You're more of a monster than I could ever be."

Pause.

"The creature" Wanda began but before could finish Pietro had pulled every plug there was

"No, no. Go on. You were saying?" He asked. Sarah continued to stare at Tony, even when Pietro fell through the floor.

"Pietro!" Wanda screamed. She ran forward towards where he fell but Bruce grabbed her.

"Go ahead, piss me off." Wanda sent something through herself and threw him back. Thor then landed on the cradle.

"Wait!" Bruce screamed. Thor sent lighting towards it. Then something, a person, came out of the cradle. It looked around then it, he, flew at Thor. Thor took it by the arm and threw him at the window and he stopped himself. He looked out and then he put clothes on himself. Everyone ran to the room the AI was in.

"I'm sorry, that was...odd." He turned to Thor. "Thank you."

"Thor, you helped create this?" Steve asked. Sarah walked over to beside he dad.

"I've had a vision. A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life and at its center is that." Thor pointed to the AI's forehead.

"What, the gem?" Bruce asked

"It's the Mind Stone. It's one of the six Infinity Stones, the greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities."

"Then why would you bring it to..." Sarah began

"Because Stark is right." Thor interrupted

"Oh, it's definitely the end times." Bruce looked at Tony

"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron." Thor explained

"Not alone." The man said.

"Why does your "vision" sound like Jarvis?" Steve asked

"Sarah found Jarvis at the NEXUS center, blocking out Ultron. We...we reconfigured Jarvis' matrix to create something new."

"I think I've had my fill of new." Steve looked down at the ground.

"You think I'm a child of Ultron?" He asked

"You're not?"

"I'm not Ultron. I'm not Jarvis. I am...I am..." There was a silence

"I looked in your head and saw annihilation." Wanda stepped forward

"Look again."

"Yeah. Her seal of approval means jack to me." Clint muttered.

"What about mine?" Sarah snapped, looking over in Clint's direction. There was another silence.

"Their powers, the horrors in our heads, Ultron himself, they all came from the Mind Stone, and they're nothing compared to what it can unleash. But with it on our side..." Thor told them

"Is it? Are you? On our side?" Steve asked

"I don't think it's that simple."

"Well it better get real simple real soon." Clint ordered

"I am on the side of life. Ultron isn't, he will end it all." Thor's vision explained

"What's he waiting for?" Tony asked

"You."

"Where?" Bruce asked

"Sokovia. He's got Nat there too." Clint told them. Sarah looked around, realizing Nat was missing.

"He's got Nat?" Sarah asked. She was ignored

"If we're wrong about you, if you're the monster that Ultron made you to be..." Bruce threatened.

"What will you do?" He looked around and saw the looks on all of their faces. "I don't want to kill Ultron. He's unique, and he's in pain. But that pain will roll over the earth, so he must be destroyed. Every form he's built, every trace of his presence on the net, we have to act now. And not one of us can do it without the others. Maybe I am a monster. I don't think I'd know if I were one. I'm not what you are, and not what you intended. So there may be no way to make you trust me. But we need to go." He handed Thor his hammer.

"Seriously?" Sarah murmured

"Right." Thor patted Tony on the shoulder. "Well done."

"Three minutes. Get what you need." Steve ordered.

"No way we all get through this. If even one tin soldier is left standing, we've lost. It's gonna be blood on the floor." Tony told Steve. Sarah looked down at the ground

"I got no plans tomorrow night."

"I get first crack at the big guy. Iron Man's the one he's waiting for." Tony claimed

"That's true, he hates you the most." Vision corroborated.

"Ultron knows we're coming. Odds are we'll be riding into heavy fire, and that's what we signed up for. But the people of Sokovia, they didn't. So our priority is getting them out. All they want is to live their lives in peace, and that's not going to happen today. But we can do our best to protect them. And we can get the job done, and find out what Ultron's been building. We find Romanoff, and we clear the field. Keep the fight between us. Ultron thinks we're monsters and we're what's wrong with the world. This isn't just about beating him. It's about whether he's right." Steve told them. Sarah boarded the jet and looked at Wanda.

"I'm Sarah Rogers-Barnes." Sarah told her.

"Wanda Maximoff" She replied.

"I know." Sarah smiled.

"How do we have the same powers?" Wanda asked after a moment.

"I was born with them. I believe HYDRA injected you with my DNA in hopes to replicate them. They probably figured out that the only way to beat me is to be me." Sarah laughed dryly.

"I saw how much what did hurt you." Sarah froze. "I'm sorry."

Sarah turned to her and smiled sadly.

"I get it. You did what you had to do to protect yourself and your bother."

"No I didn't." She said. Sarah smiled.

"No. You didn't, but at least you believed it for a second."

Wanda laughed lightly

Sarah looked around the scene ahead of her. There were people everywhere running. Sarah started leading people to the bridges and out of the city, out of the line of fire. She had been doing a pretty good job until the city began flying.

"What the hell?" Sarah muttered. She looked around, then she saw the little boy on the bridge, the one that was falling. She sprinted forward. He was crying, looking down at what Sarah presumed was his mother.

"Mommy!" He wasn't speaking in Russian which Sarah found strange. They were probably on a trip.  

Hell of a vacation

Sarah looked down below her and watched the woman fall. She hit her head on the pavement and fell into the water. The boy began to scream. She scooped the boy up in her arms and ran away from the bridge.

"It's okay honey. It's okay." She walked over to a building towards the city center and set him down. "My name is Sarah. What's your name baby?"

"Howard but I like Howie better." He told her. Sarah smiled

"Okay, Howie, stay here. I'm coming back really soon, I promise."

"Don't leave!" He jumped up and wrapped his arms around her neck. Sarah took a deep breath and then she moved him so he was looking into her eyes

"I have to save people but I'm coming back. I promise." She told him. He nodded his head and then sat down on the ground and curled up into a ball. Sarah took her coat off and wrapped him in it. "Please don't leave this spot."

She ran out and looked around her. She began splitting robots and throwing them. She stayed relatively by the building to make sure it stayed safe. Every time she stepped in front of the window he looked at her and watched. She had this overwhelming feeling that she needed to protect him.

"Alright, we're all clear here." Clint called over the intercom

"We are not clear! We are very not clear!" Steve called.

"Me neither." Sarah told them.

"Alright, coming to you." Clint told them. Sarah wondered who he was actually going to but she didn't ask. She fought until Wanda appeared next to her. She smiled at Wanda and Wanda smiled back.

"Watch and learn." Sarah smirked. She took one and ripped it in half then she jumped up. She flipped over one and threw another one. She continued to jump up, one bot at a time and then, as she came down, she brought about twenty down with her. Wanda stared in disbelief for a moment.

"Teach me that?" She asked. Sarah laughed.

"If you're lucky."

"The next wave's gonna hit any minute. What have you got, Stark?" Steve called

"Well, nothing great. Maybe a way to blow up the city. That'll keep it from impacting the surface if you guys can get clear." Tony replied. Sarah frowned but understood

"I asked for a solution, not an escape plan." Steve told him

"Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We're going to have to make a choice."

"Cap, these people are going nowhere. If Stark finds a way to blow this rock..." Nat interrupted

"Not 'til everyone's safe."

"Everyone up here versus everyone down there? There's no math there." Natasha added over the com

"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it." Steve told them

"She didn't say we should leave." Sarah interrupted.

"There's worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?" Nat continued. Sarah looked out with Wanda

"Glad you like the view, Romanoff. It's about to get better." Fury's voice came of nowhere "Nice, right? I pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She's dusty, but she'll do."

Sarah looked over to see the helicarrier fly through the clouds. Sarah smiled as she looked at it. Then more boats came out of the sides. 

"Fury, you son of a bitch." Steve laughed

"Oooh! You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

"Let's load 'em up." Steve said. Sarah smiled. She looked over at Howard. She then saw more bots and began to fight them.

"Alright, you heard him, let's load 'em up! Alright, here we go. Here we go, let's move. Let's go everyone!" Clint called.

"Number six boat is topped and locked. Or, uh, or stocked, topped. It...it's, uh, full of people." A specialist called. Sarah laughed. She made her was over to Howard.

"Hey Howie. Come here." She said. She stood up and ran over, accidentally dropping her coat. She ran over to a boat, the last one, and set him in there.

"Howie. I have to go fight some more. You stay here and I'll come back when I'm done." Sarah promised. Howie nodded and then sat in a seat in the back corner.

"Thor, I got a plan!" Tony called

"We're out of time. They're coming for the core." Thor replied. Sarah launched herself to the city center.

"Rhodey, get the rest of the people on board that carrier."

"On it."

"Avengers, time to work for a living. Romanoff? You and Banner better not be playing hide the zucchini." Tony called. Arriving to see neither of them at the core.

"Relax, Shell-head. Not all of us can fly." She ran into the building "What's the drill?"

"This is the drill. If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose." Tony told them Everyone nodded

"Is that the best you can do?" Thor screams.

"No." More robots arrive on the scene. "This is the best I can do."

"You had to ask?" Steve muttered. Sarah laughed.

"Well, like the old man said. Together." Tony said. Sarah began fighting and so did everyone else. They fought every single robot off using everyone's strengths.

After they were gone, Ultron began looking at them. 

"You know, with the benefit of hindsight...." Hulk knocked him out of their area and the bots began retreating

"They'll try to leave the city." Sarah called.

"We can't let 'em, not even one. Rhodey!"

"I'm on it." Rhodey said.

"We gotta move out. Even I can tell the air is getting thin. You guys get to the boats, I'll sweep for stragglers, be right behind you." Steve ordered. Sarah nodded and hugged him. She smiled at him and then ran off to the boat. She walked on to it but she didn't see Howard in his seat.

"Howie?" She asked, looking around.

"Howie?" She said again. Then she saw him on land, grabbing her coat.

"Howard!" She yelled. He looked over at her and she sprinted to him and picked him up.

"You scared me." She told him.

"I'm sorry" He said. He offered her coat to her. She chuckled and took it and then she heard the shots. She looked up to see Ultron shooting, coming straight for them. She looked back down at Howard. She saw Clint run forward to help them but she knew he wasn't going to make it. She leaned down to protect Howard but when the noises stopped she wasn't shot. She looked up.

"You didn't see that coming?" He asked. She didn't understand it but Clint did. He looked down and took a few deep breaths. He picked up Pietro and carried him to the boat. Sarah carried Howard.

She sat down, the little boy in her lap, and she waited. She looked out and then the city began to drop. Her dad jumped up onto a carrier and Sarah looked over the edge. Steve ran over to her. She held Howie tightly in her arms, almost like she was in fear of dropping him then the city blew. 

"Tony." Sarah murmured. She heard no noise. She heard nothing. 

"Tony?!" Sarah yelled. She looked around for her brother but she couldn't see him. 

"TONY!" She screamed. 

Silence 

"Ow." She heard in her ear. Sarah took a breath of relief. 

"I hate you." She claimed. 

"No you don't." 

The boats flew off 

She walked in the Avengers compound with her dad, Tony, Thor and Howard.

Convincing her dad to keep him was almost impossible. She proved that he had no other family, other than his mother who was dead.  Steve had only agreed when she told him that he got her through strange circumstances and now she was the best thing to ever happen to him.

Also, Howard had something to do with it.

"Grampa please?" Howard begged.

"I'm too young to be a grandfather." Steve had responded

"You're almost a hundred." Sarah reminded him. Everyone had talked him into it and eventually gave in.

Sarah hadn't stopped smiling. Currently she was carrying the two-year-old on her hip. He was quite small but very smart. She was surprised he was two because he looked younger and acted older but his DNA had given her his birth records and he was for sure two years old.

"The rules have changed." Steve said

"We're dealing with something new." Tony replied

"Well, the Vision's artificial intelligence."

"A machine."

"So it doesn't count."

"No. It's not like a person lifting the hammer."

"Right. Different rules for us."

"Nice guy, but artificial."

"Thank you."

"I can lift the hammer and I'm not a machine." Sarah interrupted only to be ignored

"If he can wield the hammer, he can keep the Mind Stone. It's safe with the Vision and these days, safe is in short supply." Thor told them. There was a pause

"But if you put the hammer in an elevator..." Steve started

"It would still go up." Tony continued

"Elevator's not worthy." Sarah agreed, looking at them

"I'm going to miss these little talks of ours." Thor replied as he walked towards the outside.

"Well, not if you don't leave." Tony told him.

"I have no choice. The Mind Stone is the fourth of the Infinity Stones to show up in the last few years. That's not a coincidence. Someone has been playing an intricate game and has made pawns of us. But once all these pieces are in position..."

"Triple Yahtzee?" Tony interrupted.

"You think you can find out what's coming?" Sarah asked

"I do. Besides this one" Thor pointed at Tony "There's nothing that can't be explained." 

Thor flew off, leaving a burnt design in the grass.

"That man has no regard for lawn maintenance. I'm gonna miss him though. And you're gonna miss me. There's gonna be a lot of manful tears." Tony said

"We actually will miss you, Tony." Sarah responded

"Yeah? Well, it's time for me to tap out. Maybe I should take a page out of Barton's book and build Pepper a farm, hope nobody blows it up." Tony told them. Sarah laughed

"The simple life." Steve told him.

"You'll get there one day." Tony told him. Sarah scoffed

"Stability? The guy who wanted that went in the ice seventy-five years ago. I think someone else came out."

"You alright?" He asked Steve. Steve nodded his head and smiled.

"I'm home." Steve tells him. Sarah smiled and turned back to Tony as Steve walked away. She looked into his head and saw there was no longer fear or hatred. Only happiness.

"You be good kid." He told her.

"Don't tell me what to do." Sarah joked. She set Howard down and hugged him. Then Howard did.

"Bye Uncle Tony." He said. Tony smiled. Tony let go.

"Ironic, his name." Tony said as he ran off towards the building.

"I know. Almost like it was fate." She joked. He smiled.

"I love you." He told her, pulling her into another hug. She smiled.

"I love you too." She told him. He kissed her forehead then got into his car and drove off. Sarah looked over at Howard.

"Howie!" She called, running after him. He stopped and she caught up.

"What?" He asked politely

"No more running." Sarah ordered. He looked at her for a moment, smiled mischievously, and then sprinted towards the building.

Sarah groaned.


	5. July 4th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarah heard the tune to Pocket Full of Sunshine before her door was even open. After a moment her door was thrown open and all of the Avengers came into the room, jamming along. Sarah groaned and placed a pillow upon her head. She felt Tony get closer so she sat up and threw her pillow at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Sarah's birthday so I decided to I would post a chapter for it. I hope you like it.

It was July 4th 

Howard had begun calling Sarah mommy very soon after he had gotten there and she had adopted him as soon as she could. She loved him more than anything in the world. 

Howard loved her more. She was his mother, through and through, more than his biological mother had ever been. He loved being with her and the rest of his family. He also loved other things almost just as much. He loved. coloring and playing and running. 

Howard really loved running, and he loved running fast. Sarah had a hard time keeping up with him, she could run faster than him sure, but he could run longer and that tired her out. 

Sarah didn't want to chase him anymore. 

She was working in the lab with her brother when her son ran in the room and he threw her files off her desk, for what reason she didn't know, then proceeded to smile and then run away. Sarah glared at Tony who was chuckling over his coffee. 

"Howard Shane Rogers-Barnes!" She yelled in frustration. Tony smirked. 

"Oh he's gonna get it." He muttered as his sister stood up. 

"You best your ass he is." She responded before running off to chase him.

She chased through the compound until she reached the living room, in which she could sense he was hiding. She could also sense more people hiding and all of them in the dark. 

"What the hell?" She said. She walked over and flipped on the light switch.

"SURPRISE!"

Sarah jumped. 

"Shit!" She yelled. She looked over at everyone, standing in the room and laughing. "What are you doing?" 

"Birthday surprise." Howard responded, handing her a picture he had drawn of everyone together as a family. Sarah realized that his random act of defiance was actually his way of luring her here. She smiled brightly and took the picture he had drawn. 

"You little trickster." She laughed. Howard smiled and then jumped up onto Sarah. 

"Happy birthday mommy." He said. She smiled. 

"Thank you baby." She responded. He pulled back and Steve walked up, package in hand. 

"Happy birthday love." He smiled. Sarah hugged him. 

"Happy birthday dad." She replied, pulling away. He handed her the box.

"What's this?" She asked. Steve smiled

"Open it and find out" 

Sarah smiled and then opened the box. She looked up at him. 

"I know it's not as good as the real thing but I couldn't find the original and-" 

Sarah dropped the box, gift still in hand, and wrapped her arms around his neck. 

"It's perfect Dad. Really." She assured. He pulled back and she looked at the photo, a reprint of the one she took with her two dads and Howard at a party. She smiled at the framed photo. 

"I got you a drawing tablet too but I wanted to give you this one first." He told her. 

"So does this mean all of our gifts are shit now?" Tony asked, taking another sip of his water. 

"Other than Howie's" she started, turning to her brother. She replied to him simply "Yes."

"Oh. Fine. I'll just keep the car then" he muttered. Sarah smiled. 

"You got me a car?" She asked. Tony scoffed. 

"Apparently I got me a car." He responded. Sarah rolled her eyes and then walked over to him and hugged him. 

"Thank you Tony." When she pulled back she saw him smiling at her. 

"You're welcome kid."   
________________________________

Steve didn't like the way Sarah drove. 

Howard loved it. 

She parked and pulled Howie of of his car seat and saw Nat and Tony smirking as the emerged from Tony's car, Rhodey following while nodding his head in approval, and Wanda was just smiling. Vision stood behind her, a glimmer of amusement hidden in his eyes. Clint and family were in tow, Clint looking more impressed with her than ever. 

"Mommy I like going fast!" Howie shouted. Sarah smirked. 

"I like going fast too." She responded. Steve put his hand on the trunk of her car to balance himself and Sam stood next to him. 

"I don't." He muttered. Tony laughed and pat him on the back. 

"Sorry buddy." He said to which Steve snapped his head up and glared. 

"No you aren't." Steve was speculating but it wasn't a stretch to think that was true. 

"No. I'm not." Tony confirmed. Steve said nothing but stood up. Sarah looked around at the picture in front of her. 

"I've missed this park." She murmured. Steve walked up next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. 

"I have too." He continued. She smiled before exiting the parking lot and walking onto the grass, her son on her hip. They walked through the trees and found a slightly secluded spot. 

Steve threw the blanket down and the everyone else began setting the food down. 

Sarah gave Howard a slice of pizza and then happily enjoyed one herself. She watched as everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves. She looked at her son, who was reaching for another piece of pizza and became delighted when Tony handed one to him. He munched on it as he walked over and sat down next to his mother. 

"Hey." Tony said, grabbing everyone's attention. They all looked at him. He pulled the cake out of the box and began lighting the candles. "Because you hate it when we all sing we've decided that we will not sing tonight but instead however will wake you up tomorrow morning, and by we I mean Howie, myself, and anyone who would like to join us, by singing Pocket Full of Sunshine as loud as humanly possible." 

Everyone laughed. 

Tony lit the candles and she blew them out. Everyone cheered and Tony passed out the cake. Sarah took hers in hand before looking over into the trees only to see a strange figure looking at them. 

"I'll be right back, just gotta pee." She said as everyone was laughing at some joke Tony was telling. They all nodded and she stood up. She walked over to the shadowy figure. 

"Daddy?" She asked. Bucky emerged slightly from the shadows. 

"Hi." He said awkwardly. She nodded her head. 

"Hello." She replied. He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck and then reached into his pocket and handed her a small book, still wrapped within its protective plastic packaging. She took it and smiled at the gift. He smiled sadly at her. 

"Happy birthday." He said. She smiled back at him. 

"Thank you." She said. She watched Bucky look over at the group. "You can join us you know." 

"No!" He said urgently. "I mean no. Thank you. I'm just not there yet."

"It's okay. I understand." She told him. He looked at Steve. "He misses you. He's been looking for you and he's gotten kinda close but I've been trying to stalk him, give you space to get your shit in order." 

"Thank you." He said graciously. 

"Of course." 

"And you're doing alright?" He asked her

"Yes dad. I'm doing great." She began. She looked over at the group. "You have a grandson. I didn't give birth to him or anything but he's mine. He calls me mommy and he calls Steve Grandpop." She looked at Bucky who was smiling. "He wants to meet you. He calls you papa. Steve and I tell him about you and he's so excited to see you someday." 

Bucky smiled. 

"Yeah. Someday." He muttered. Sarah looked at the ground. "Look, Sarah, I don't do well around fireworks so I should get going. I just wanted to tell you happy birthday. Tell Him I said happy birthday too."

He began to walk away. 

"Wait!" She said. Bucky turned to her. "How did you know we'd be here?" 

Bucky smiled. 

"I remembered coming here every birthday you had as a kid." He told her, laughing lightly. She smiled and then ran and hugged him. He hesitated and then he squeezed her tight. She pulled back. 

"Goodbye daddy." She said. 

"Goodbye Sarah." 

She turned to walk away. She walked through the clearing in the trees and looked back but Bucky was gone. She smiled sadly and then sat down. 

"There you are mommy! The fireworks are about to start!" Howard shouted excitedly, sitting down next to her. She smiled and heard the first bang. She watched intently as the lights shot everywhere, dancing though the darkness. 

"Woah." Howard said. Sarah looked at him and smiled. "Mommy I love fireworks." He assured, whispering as he was mesmerized by the colors. Sarah smiled.  
________________________________

Sarah heard the tune to Pocket Full of Sunshine before her door was even open. After a moment her door was thrown open and all of the Avengers came into the room, jamming along. Sarah groaned and placed a pillow upon her head. She felt Tony get closer so she sat up and threw her pillow at him. 

"Out!" She shouted, shoving them with her powers out of the room. She slammed the door and locked it. 

"Aw come on Ms. Grumpy ice" Tony laughed. 

"Shove off Tony, you ass!" She yelled, only half serious. She heard them all walk away, laughing. Sarah looked over at her alarm clock to see it was 4:06 in the morning. She fell back onto the mattress and looked at the ceiling. She could feel the song starting to already get stuck in her head. 

Sarah chuckled.


End file.
